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Community Corner

A Grandmother's Resourcefulness Inspires Art Project

Kathryn shows you how to make mini landscapes with natural objects

I want to dedicate this post to my grandmother.  Raised during the Great Depression she, like so many of her generation was renown for saving, making do, and emphasizing the value of things.  It is sometimes said that this generation had "green" habits before it was trendy so it seems fitting that she inspired this art project for our focus on green arts for April.


One of my favorite memories is sitting with Meme on our back porch creating mini landscapes.  She would give me a biscuit tin and send me out into the yard to collect stones, sticks, and bits of moss which we would then arrange in the tin into a little garden landscape.  Moss worked well for greenery and was also spongy enough to allow small twigs to stand in it for trees.  The stones provided stepping stones and resting spots for a small plastic frog or turtle we added.  Sometimes flowers were added or berries or acorns, whatever happened to be in season in the yard.


When I decided to write about creating mini-landscapes I began collecting pieces and arranging on a paper plate so I would have a photo for this article.  I soon found myself becoming more and more invested in the design of my scene, enjoying the small scale and simplicity of my natural materials.  It was soothing and meditative to work with natural materials and to know I could just play with different arrangements.

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My children and their friends were quickly drawn in too, asking for paper plates to create their own landscapes.  Working together we found bits of flowering trees, broken seeds, berries and colored leaves to add.  Stories emerged as a piece of a seed pod became a canoe and a branch with red berries became an apple tree.  We tried using twigs and bits of dried stalks to build a bridge from one landscape to another.


Lego men soon came along looking for adventure in our wooded settings and added to the stories; taking off their legs made them appear to be chest deep in the water poured in around the rocks.  The best part was the way the landscapes could adapt and be added to so easily just by exploring the yard.  Spring is a wonderful time for seeds, berries, new flowers and still a few left-over dried out stalks from winter.

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The following day, we photographed our creations to remember them and were able to put our materials back in the garden to become part of the natural landscape once again.  The paper plates weren't reusable so I suggest plastic plates or a frisbee or tin if you want to be able to truly reuse all materials.  This is a project I encourage adults to try with their child - have fun with some meditative mini-landscaping on your next outdoor adventure this spring.

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