The Story of The Hexagonal Paper Vase
My continuous exploration to see what I can do with paper and what paper can do for me resulted in this latest project. It started spontaneously. I bought a box of Rotatrim paper, and once the reams were packed into the office cupboard, I couldn’t bring myself to throw the box away. Consequently I cut it up into squares in anticipation of using them somehow. A few days later, I decided to try some leaf prints on the squares.
I spread black lino ink onto a flat glass surface with a brayer. Then I took the leaves and spread them onto the ink. Finally I laid each leaf onto a cardboard square, then pressed firmly down to get the print. I used the plain brown back of the board, but where there were plain black or white patches form the from the front, I printed on those or left them plain for effect.
The leaves that I used are from the Tecoma Capensis or Cape Honeysuckle, an indigenous bush that scrambles beautifully in my garden. Interestingly it has some medicinal properties too!
I measured the cardboard tiles and then created a thin white board hexagonal framework. I scored vertical fold-lines and mounted the leaf prints onto the board. I added a hexagonal base. The paper vase is good for waterless arrangements, but is large enough to fit a container to carry water if needed.
In the top picture, I have inserted a glass tumbler with water to keep the leaves fresh and green. This bunch of proteas below (made from Lesley Magwood Fraser’s art) looks good in the paper vase too!
Finally – The hexagonal vase looks good, even standing on its own. I am keen to try some other boxes with different colour ways.
