Chapter 5 OTHER WILD-FLOWER DESIGNS

Daisy Fleabane Design

Isn't the design Fig. 23 what grown-ups call Japanesque? Doesn't it look as if it had been copied from a printed pattern on a piece of Japanese cotton cloth?

Fig.23 - Daisy Fleabane design

Well, it was not. It is from a design made especially for you of real wild flowers, freshly gathered. The name of the flower is the daisy fleabane which grows in almost all open grassy fields where daisies and buttercups and clovers are found.

The illustration Fig. 24 shows how the daisy fleabane looks when first gathered. Sometimes the blossom is entirely white, sometimes it is tinged with purple, and it has a bright-yellow centre. Its petals are as fine as a fringe, like those of the asters that blossom in the fall.

In making the design the full-blown flowers were pressed down flat, which makes them round like a sunflower, while the buds and partly open flowers were left as they naturally grew. The composition, or arrangement, of this design is like that used for the upright clover design (Fig. 16), that is, it has two tall side sprays and a shorter middle spray; but see how very different the two designs are in appearance. The clover is all graceful curves, the daisy fleabane is stiff and formal with straight lines and angles.

If you use the white flower, make the design on a sheet of tinted paper, else the flower will not show. All white flowers should have tinted paper for a background.

Wild Mustard Design

The small, yellow blossoms of the wild mustard and its compound leaves make very dainty designs. Fig. 25 is one of them.

Fig.25 - Wild Mustard design.

Fig.26 - Wild Mustard.

Fig.24 - The Daisy Fleabane grows like this.

From the drawing of the wild mustard (Fig. 26) you will see that the flowers do not grow close to the leaves as they are placed in this design, but on tall stems which lift them far above the scattered leaf-sprays. The design Fig. 25 was made by cutting off a number of flower-clusters and leaves, and grouping first one flower-cluster and one leaf-spray together, with the ends of their stems touching, then another flower-cluster and another leaf-spray. The arrows in Fig. 27 show where the stems are brought together, and the design Fig. 25 shows how the joining of the first two is covered with one of the small leaves of the second leaf-spray, and how the joining of the second two is hidden under a leaf of the third leaf-spray, and so on.

Fig.27 - Parts of Wild Mustard design.

There are four flower-clusters and five leaf-sprays in the design. You can have as many as you wish but must end them with a leaf-spray.

Fig.28 - Buttercup design.

Buttercups-a Design

Buttercups are so beautifully golden, so glossy and bright, you would think they could be made into many nice things, a gold necklace for instance. And so they could if they only would not wilt almost as soon as they are gathered. To be sure, they will revive and freshen up when put in water if they are not too much wilted, but we cannot make them into jewelry while their stems are in water.

Still there is something buttercups can be used for, and that is designs. Fig. 28 is a drawing from the simplest kind of a buttercup design but a pretty one. It shows five wide-open blossoms placed in a row at equal distances apart with a little spray of leaves and bud at the lower end of each stem. These sprays do not grow as they are in the design but are added after the flowers are placed in a row.

As in all other designs, each flower, bud, and stem is touched with paste on the under-side to hold it in place on the paper. A design like Fig. 28 should be pressed after it is arranged, and it will last a long while and keep its bright color. A number of other and very beautiful designs can be made of the common wild buttercup.

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