I've been reading The Paper Garden, by Molly Peacock, which details the life and art of Mary Delaney, who made intricate botanical collages from coloured paper in the 1770s. The book is beautifully written, and there are quite a few coloured plates of her work, which inspired me to try a bit of collage myself. I copied Delaney's idea for a black card background, but I used some glossy circulars from the letterbox to cut out the plant itself. I'm guessing Mrs Delaney might have used a superior paper herself, but I liked the idea of recycling. The whole project was quite a therapeutic way to end the week.
The starting-point branch of apple blossom was cut from the tree in our back garden. Hooray for blossom.
You can see some more of Delaney's work here at the British Museum website.
