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?
[Illustration: 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.
[Illustration: Fig.25 - Wild Mustard design.]
[Illustration: Fig.26 - Wild Mustard.]
[Illustration: 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.
[Illustration: 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.
[Illustration: 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.