Albizia Flowers

We have a lovely Albizia tree in our garden which, amazingly, has survived -17 degree winters and heatwave summers - but I must not speak too soon as we are in the middle of another one! 36 degrees yesterday and nearly there again today.

While I was weeding around the base of the tree the other day, I noticed that not only is it shedding dead flowers, but also fresh, vibrant pink ones (could this be a warning!).

They are fascinating little pink brushes - suprisingly strong. So I picked up a handfull and thought I would see if I could dry them to add to some of my work.

Here at the flowers

I gave them a short blast in the microwave

Then left them to cool down before opening.

They had lost some of their vibrancy but are still very attractive.
After a short while I had a nice collection.

So now, what to do with them? I find that making postcards is always a good way to experiment with new techniques and materials so I cut a couple of pieces of pelmet vilene to size and had an odment left so cut that into two.

I laid painted bondaweb on the vilene, a few flower heads, covered with baking parchment and then ironed.

The baking parchment is peeled off when everything is cool.

I added a layer of pale green sheer fabric to the two postcards to protect the flower heads as I do like to post my cards as postcards.

So here are my finished results - two cards and two postcards.

When I opened the box today I found that the left over flower heads had deteriorated slightly - possibly I had not dried them enough in the microfleur. However, by ironing the ones I used, that completed the drying process and they are fine.
So I went and picked up a few more to dry. This time I have used evolon as my backround and again added painted bondaweb and topped it off with the sheer fabric.

I intend to try some hand stitching into this piece.

Hope you all have a good weeked - I am off to 'batten hatches' and move delicate plants as we are forecast storms with hail and strong winds tonight!

Happy stitching

Lin