weekend etegami

Houkou Utsugi

Yamabuki

Dokudami

 The problem with painting similar things, is that you might get the subjects in your images confused... and that is exactly what happened to me this weekend.  I drew 3 white flowers from my grandmother's yard, and 2 were pretty similar, especially once they were painted.

The first etegami is of a flower called HOUKOU UTSUGI.  It looks almost like a hibiscus, has four thin crinkled petals, is the size of a ping pong ball, and is very fragrant.  The message says "hello".

The second flower etegami is of another 4 petalled white flower called YAMABUKI.  This flower isn't fragrant, but is similar in size to the first one.  When I was writing the caption, I mistook it flower for the first one and I wrote "You wouldn't know the fragrance just by looking at this...".  Indeed.  I'll just mail it to my mom, and hopefully she'll like it despite the mistake!

The third flower is called DOKUDAMI.  It has a cute little flower about the size of a quarter ($0.25).  The striking thing about this flower is the reddish purple splotches on and around the rim of the leaves.   This plant does not smell good what so ever, but lasts a long time after it's been cut and will not stink up your home.  The message says "Summer has arrived".

Teacup on recycled paper: not so much nijimi

Teacup on higher nijimi iron on: but it doesn't have as much as I like

Teacup on etegami postcard: lots of nijimi, A+

Willow ikebana on postcard with border: again, lots of nijimi A+

These last four postcards were tests on new paper!  New paper again?  Yes, I went on another shopping trip this weekend, this time with my aunt to an art store called Sekaido in Tachikawa.  I was a little disappointed in the lack of nijimi (bleed) in the recycled paper card, and the iron-on because they were labeled as having nijimi.  The iron on tea cup says "tea time".  This might just inspire me to get into paper making on my own... but for now, I'll use up the post cards that I have. Stay tuned!

xoxo
Char