Winters in Washington
state were very cold and rainy so we would often find ourselves looking out the
window at our gardens, knowing we would have to wait until spring to work in
them again. Instead of facing the melancholia of the long winters, we decided
to bring some of nature into our home to help us stay in touch with it until
springtime came again. Little did we know, we were embarking on an endeavor
that would occupy us with wonderful experiences through every season for many
years into the future.
So, before winter
officially silenced everything in nature with it’s cold and bitter frost, we gathered leaves
and flowers and pressed and dried them; collected bark, vines, branches and
tendrils and stored them in baskets; and picked berries, herbs, seeds and
little pods and saved them in small boxes. Everywhere we turned on our long
walks through the fields and forests near our home or in our gardens, we would
search for beautiful “nature treasures” to gather and save for the long winters
of gray and cloudy days. We, of course, didn’t need to wait until autumn to
begin gathering our nature treasures; we realized that all seasons have their
benefits and beautiful offerings of flowers, leaves, moss, twigs, etc. We were
so comforted and healed by our nature walks and the time we spent in our
gardens. We often remarked how peaceful and happy we felt after we had spent so
much time in nature and wondered how good we would feel if we somehow could work “up
close” with it, every day.
We had two small
children, two wonderful sons, so we were constantly reminded of what it felt
like to be a little person in a big world. Walking nearly every day among the
towering evergreens around us rekindled an awareness in us of how small we
really were. Even as the smallest seeds grew into such great creations as the
tall fir trees we saw at the end of our field or the massive Russian sunflowers
we grew in our summer garden, we felt inspired to follow this pattern in nature
by using it’s “small works of design” to create an artistic and fanciful world
of our own. Our sons inspired us, too, to think more creatively and to take the
time to look at the world around us more closely. We could see how they loved
to be outside as much as we did, so as a family, we were all happier spending
more time out of the house. Our sons were a very important part of the
creativity that led to making our little world of art from nature. Their joy
with life and the fun they always had helped us to think more like children and
believe that anything was possible. So, as parents, we can definitely learn
from our children to be more aware of life’s beautiful and amazing treasures.
Once
the winter was upon us and we were more confined to being indoors, we brought
our nature gatherings out from their many boxes and wondered what we could create with them. We
wanted to make something artistic from the natural treasures we had found and
had always loved anything made from nature…..like rustic Adirondack chairs or
beautiful wreaths. But, after attempting to make a life-size chair from
branches, we found that it was easier to work on a smaller scale and we could
imagine more of a miniature, fantasy world. Using some of the little branches
we had gathered, we each constructed a little chair, no more than 5 inches tall
and suddenly an amazing and magical experience was beginning for us. Soon, our
table was filled with other little chairs, as well as tables, little book
shelves, beds, cradles, tiny dishes and books and many other wonderful
creations, all made from nature. The most rewarding part of this new creative
experience, however, was working up close with nature. It
was just as delightful as we had imagined it could be, when we worked in our
gardens. We were able to see the
beautiful and intricate details of delicate flowers and leaves; the rustic, earthy
colors and textures of twigs and bark and the quirky and unusual shapes of
stones and pods that sometimes appeared to have faces or resembled crowns or
tiny cups. Now, we were not just walking through the woods or spending time in
our garden every day, we were holding these tiny pieces of nature in our hands
and working with them so closely that our perspective began to change. Now, the
natural world we were seeing was one filled with an abundance of artistic
creations.
We lived on several
acres in a somewhat rural part of Washington state. On one part of the acreage,
we had built a little log cabin and a small barn from old wood we had salvaged. We
constructed a large greenhouse where we grew lovely vegetable and flower starts, later planting them in our large gardens.
Early mornings were an especially wonderful, quiet time in the greenhouse to
sense the beauty of the plants. We spent many hours planting and working in our
gardens, often staying outside until it was nearly dark, preferring the fresh
air and beauty of the outside world to our home indoors. We were
continuously bringing nature into our
home to help make it more of a beautiful sanctuary. We loved animals, too.
During this time, we raised geese, ducks, chickens, rabbits, pigeons and a
pony; we even raised bees one year. We also shared our home with cats and a dog named Molly. The geese, ducks and cats all loved to walk in the gardens with us. The
geese would stand guard over our property with great purposefulness. The
animals were humorous and good company and seemed to enjoy the sunny days as much
as we did. We all loved being outside together. Our animals were a joy to us
and added to the inspiration we felt about nature; their spirits truly helped
us to feel closer to our own natural instincts. We could feel each one's
personality.
Although, we could
collect enough natural materials in one morning or afternoon for each of us to
make several pieces, in several months we had gathered a roomful of supplies
for our nature art. We felt the excitement perhaps Darwin might have felt as he
collected new and fascinating materials. Once we had all of our gatherings
separated and sorted so we could easily access them, it was truly an exciting feeling to see that much of the outdoors in our house. We had beautiful
hydrangeas of every color hanging from the ceiling of our living room which we had been given by many obliging neighbors. These gorgeous flowers, like
clusters of grapes with their pale, deep blue, burgundy, pink and green colors, were
delicate and magical. Boxes of supplies lined the walls of our workroom from
the floor to the ceiling; baskets were filled with diverse kinds of wild
grasses, herbs and mosses. We had gathered every kind of natural object we
could find. It was amazing to have collected so many different varieties of
nature that we felt impassioned to do our very best to represent their beauty
and diversity to the world. We felt as if we were composing and arranging each
small beautiful piece of nature so their uniqueness could be seen, as a choir
director might do with his singers and an orchestra. We could see how placing
certain leaves and flowers, tendrils and vines together would create an amazing
work of art, unique in it’s own way. We knew we would never be able to see
everything that was growing everywhere on the earth, so what we could gather on
our own became important to immortalize for others.
We soon forgot about
the long winters and not being able to work in our gardens. So engrossed in our
creativity with nature, we seemed to have lost interest in television, preferring to listen to
music or audio stories while we worked at our tables. We had amazing energy and excitement that first winter
when we began creating our nature art. Our new found enthusiasm carried us
through that cold and rainy winter until the next spring, when we bounded out into the sunshine to explore
the new life outside that was sprouting and growing. Instead of waking up like
bears from a long slumber, we had been wide awake creating works of art all
winter. Having our work tables situated by the windows, we could see the trees
outside bathed in sunlight, their leaves and branches blowing in the
wind…..while observing branches from the same trees in our hands as we created
our beautiful little fairytale pieces of art. It was almost magnetic, to feel
the connection with nature in that way. After spending our first winter
creating art from nature, our winters were never the same; when we opened our
doors and windows in the spring, we looked at nature in a completely different
and wondrous way. This began for us and it can for you as well…..a wonderful
artistic adventure for all seasons.
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