Urban Jungle Bloggers is back from its summer break and this month’s theme, ‘plants and art’, is a particularly interesting one. The challenge set by hosts Igor (of Happy Interior Blog) and Judith (of JOELIX.com) was to show beautiful combinations of paintings, sculptures, prints and greenery, but I couldn’t resist interpreting it in a slightly different way and using my favourite plants to create some artworks of my own.
I’d had some photosensitive paper hanging around at the back of a cupboard for ages, so this seemed like the perfect opportunity to try it out. The process was very easy: all I had to do was position some leaves on the paper (I used fern and palm fronds), cover them with a piece of clear acrylic to hold them in place (the front of an old picture frame proved ideal for this), and place the arrangement in direct sunlight for a couple of minutes until the paper faded to a pale blue. It was then just a case of rinsing the paper in water to develop and ‘fix’ the image, hanging it up to dry for an hour or so, and watching my creation emerge as if by magic!
I had great fun playing around with different compositions, and the results turned out far better than I expected. They now adorn our hall wall and, as I still have plenty of paper left, I’m looking forward to conjuring up some more artworks to hang alongside them.
Urban Jungle Bloggers is a monthly series which aims to encourage people to use greenery in their homes. This month’s challenge also forms part of the regular #Styleatmine competition run by interiors community at{mine} (if you haven’t already, it’s worth signing up to see hundreds of inspiring homes across the globe). Anyone can take part by uploading their own ‘plants and art’ images to at{mine} or Instagram, and there are some beautiful botanical prints by My Deer up for grabs. Just head over to the Urban Jungle Bloggers website to find out more.
Photography by Abi Dare
What a great idea, I’ll have to try it.
That looks so cool! … or hot? Anyway, love it. The background blue turned out like it’s texture paint or something – nice. Going to see if I can find this paper anywhere.
Thanks Claire! You can get some really good effects with it. I think it’s the water from rinsing that makes the background look like that – you could probably play around with patterns. I think I got the paper from Amazon so that could be worth trying.
That’s a really clever idea – well done 🙂 I’ll have to have a go at this.
Love bec
Thanks Bec – it’s so easy and fun to do!
This is beautiful. I definitely will try this.
Taking a quick break to see what all the other bloggers have come up with this month and I absolutely love yours, Abi! It’s such a fantastic idea, definitely winner worthy I’d say 😉
Awww, thanks so much Hollie! I had such fun doing it. And now I’m going to have fun looking through everyone else’s lovely posts – it was such a good theme this month! x
Hi Abi, so lovely to visit your blog after IG! This is so cool and very creative, well done. Look forward to a little nosy around your blog:) Mel x
Thanks so much Mel! Very kind of you. Hope you like the blog 😉 x
Love this Abi. Such a simple thing but what a fabulous effect! Will definitely look to try this in future. Glad that you also found some sunlight to take your shots 😉
Thanks Jill! The British weather is of course the only downside to photosensitive paper – you have to seize the moment when the sun comes out! X
Always wanted to try sun printing, this looks so beautiful! Love the fern leaves. Excellent Plants & Art post 🙂
Thanks! Ferns worked well, but I can imagine all sorts of plants creating a good effect. I might try with palm fronds next.
Wow what a great idea! I really love your fern picture! <3
Thanks so much!
Wow Abi this looks amazing! I love shadows of leaves and this is such a great way to “fix” those shadows. Thank you for your wonderful UJB Plants & Art contribution!
Thanks Judith – I love the idea of ‘fixing’ shadows! I’ve never thought of it that way before.