Do you remember this post? I do… for two reasons….first, it remains to this day, one of the most responded to posts since I wrote it over 2 years ago. And second, I can’t help but still be obsessed with the graphically cool nature of the insect walls.   Flora Grubb’s beau Kevin Smith must be also inspired because he took the idea of insect habitat walls and made it sing in a way that only a skilled craftsman and artist can do.

It is so beautiful that if this weren’t built to teem with bugs and garden encouraging insect life, I would be temped to hang it in my living room.

This is from the Flora Grubb website:

It’s assembled from foraged organic materials and reclaimed scrap, and it’s a habitat-in-waiting for bees, birds, and other native animals. The patterns of holes and partitions allows many different species of small animals to inhabit the sculpture, whether it’s mounted on an apartment terrace 16 stories above the street or next to a backyard patio. Inspired by the Urban Hedgerow campaign, Kevin interprets the invitation to urban wilderness in a really beautiful way, one that seduces us into contemplating how much wild nature we want to interact with in our human-centered habitat.

Find out more about commissioning one of Kevin’s creations for your garden by emailing buyers@floragrubb.com. If you’d like more information about the Urban Hedgerow campaign, go to http://urbanhedgerow.com/.

Is this not perhaps one of the most fantastically interesting garden swings that you have seen?   It is made by De Bruir, as are these other similarly beautiful and scultptural versions.

images from De Bruir.

Oh Dear!– look what I’ve just discovered.  The photography of Tim Pugh has me crushing on him like I crush on Andy Goldsworthy and other landscape and environmental artists.  Tim’s photos have a rustic earthiness though that brings a sense of grunge and romance to the painstakingly created pieces making him just a little bit different in a way I kinda like.

Even better Tim teaches workshops to show others how to make something beautiful from nothing but found objects and nature. See his website for more details.

I am not sure how I feel about being old enough to see fashions and fads truly recycle themselves.  I remember my grandmother and mother saying to me “Thats not new….I remember when blah blah was the fashion back when I was….blah blah”.  Well, now I am saying it.

When I was a kid, I was obsessed with my sun block printing kit.   I loved it and it seemed at the time like something lots of other people did too…..so the resurgence of this pretty way to capture a bit of your garden for your home couldn’t please me more, even if it does make me sound like my mother and make me wonder if I may need to begin lying about my age.

Have you noticed the resurgence of sun prints?

Sun printing was originally developed by Anna Atkins (a British botanist, 1799-1871) who used the process to document and catalog plants.  She felt it was more accurate than her drawings.  There is a great telling of the story of her and the algea that she first documented at Venetian Red.

The process (as applied to not just scientific record keeping) reveals beautiful results that are perfect for decor of all kinds.

Here is my round up of all the sunblocking that is catching my attention:

Blueware Tiles, vases and even lampshades by Studio Glithero.

Both Martha  Stewart and Garden Design have nice write-ups about the how-tos and you can get printable fabric at blue prints on fabric.

You can also learn more about doing it yourself from a new book by  Christine Schmidt of Yellow Owl Workshop.

I am excited to give this old craft of mine a new twist….maybe I can even get my kids hooked on it, and one day when they are 30 something, they can say, hey- “that’s not new,  I used to do blah blah back when I was blah blah…”;)

To see more sun-spiring print inspiration, check out my newest pinterest board.

images from Martha  Stewart , Garden Design, Rinne Allen,  and that cake (which is not really cyanotype but an airbrushed edible copy) is from Once Wed.

Nuria Mora has a new installation on a rooftop by the East River in New York City.  It’s not jsut a painting, but a garden, in the most artisitc sense.  And I kinda adore it’s simplicity.   More about Nuria’s process  here.

And if this kind of thing intrigues you — check out this video.

I am fascinated by the creativity of Gregory Euclide.  His landscapes are a mixed media, surreal, pleasure to rest your eyes on.   As a kid I loved building dioramas in shoe boxes and frequently ran up against challenges of creating realism that I couldn’t overcome.  So I am finding the way in which he brings together materials interesting and thought provoking.

Plus I thought I was the only one who looked upon landscape paintings and wished that I could step in.  And  I also wondered where the water or stream went should it continue right out of the frame.  I guess Gregory has had these thoughts too.