The sixth and final teasel pole

I'm now half way through the final teasel pole using green teasels. I'm off to collect more teasels on Tuesday so should finish this work by the end of the week as long as it doesn't start raining again.

The green teasels look completely different, and I'm not sure just how long they will keep the green tinge...it would be nice if they stayed like this until the exhibition but that's unlikely. My room now contains 6 teasel poles and I have to climb underneath them to leave the room. I tried out the teasel 'cradles' today (made to transport the poles in a horizontal position in the back of a truck), and they seem to work well.

A busy day

A meeting at 9am today with Zoe from SAW,  and owners of the garden in which I'm exhibiting the Horn of Plenty. this was then followed by teasel picking in the afternoon.
I've now finished the fifth pole and will start on the sixth tomorrow. The green teasels, being 'wet', are much heavier, and are making the charred poles bend. Hopefully it won't be long before they dry out a bit. The green teasels are now taking over the house but at least I'm now on the home straits.

The green teasels

The collection of green teasels has begun and as it's school holidays son comes too.......with bribes of an all day breakfast from the cafe at the end of the walk!

When we got back to the car the windows had steamed up due the the combination of heat and moisture from these cuttings. A few more hours and I would have been making compost. Spider's webs had already spread across the back of the car and they started moving forward to the front of the car on the return journey......

In the light of past failures with 'green' plants and the problems of rotting I must move very quickly with these, and remove all excess leaves and the spread them out one layer thick so as to speed up the drying process. Rain is unfortunately forecast for the next few days, so they will have to be inside.....I'm running out of room. 

Dressing the frame

I've now finished applying the undergarment to the frame.....rather like a crinoline but much tighter.
I find it quite beautiful, a work of art in its own right. The rain fall from the previous night was still on the weed control fabric in the morning.

Abundance Garden Trail Somerset Art Week 2013

I was lucky to be among a group of artists selected for a SAW bursary to produce work in response to the theme Abundance for Art Week 2013. The work will be exhibited in various gardens all over Somerset, in conjunction with the National Open Gardens Scheme. I have been contributing to a collective blog http://sawabundance.wordpress.com/category/gillian-widden/ but wanted to now add some of the images of my work to this blog....