I’m nearly out of material for my Desert Wildflower themed pieces. We’ve had a very dry spring, and there were very few poppies, asters, very few of the other little beauties I normally can find very easily. So the supply of these prints may be limited this year. I have made quite a few prints of palo verde blossoms, and the globe mallows and desert marigolds are always plentiful.

I’ll be doing some traveling this summer and hope to be able to make some prints on the road or once we’re in Tennessee, so there will be some limited edition prints available later this summer and fall. Figuring out how to do cyanotypes on the road is going to be a challenge, because the paper must be kept in the dark until it’s used. Normally I collect the plant material and arrange it in the paper inside in dim light before exposing, and that is more of a challenge when working in the field! I do have some ideas I’m excited to try out.

Palo verde blossoms

My garden herb cyanotypes depend on me having herbs in my garden. It is a challenge to keep them alive all year in our heat! But right now the weather is perfect, I am full of optimism, and so I bought more in a planting frenzy. I specifically looked at the details in the leaves when selecting them. Soon to be added to the Garden Herb photogram collection are: lavender (subspecies dentata because of the leaf shape), santolina, elfin thyme, Italian parsley, and tricolor sage.

I also hit up the Valentine’s Day Wildflower sale at Native Seeds SEARCH and bought 6 different native wildflowers to use in the Desert Wildflower collection. Check back to see how the cyanotypes turn out!

Now that spring has sprung, I’ve been able to make some new images of the flowers around my neighborhood. Volunteer asters (I think), redstem stork’s bill, and desert globe mallow. There will be more soon, I’m laying in wait for some that will open any day now!

I also collected some palo verde leaves for a new sheet to work from, since I have used all of my previous cyanotype already. These may be my absolute favorite to work with. Those time leaves! I can’t wait until they flower this year.

The newest batch of these little folded business cards arrived today, and I’m thrilled with how they turned out! There’s info about my process on the inside, and some simple care instructions for the jewelry. I provide these to retailers to give to customers who buy my work.

Making new cyanotypes for the new season. The garden is in bad shape but I have planted a few things: fennel, rosemary, thyme, carrots. The wild mustard is a reliable and delicious volunteer. I’ll buy more to plant soon, but the first Garden Herb pieces this year will be cut from this photo.