Garden Festival Decoration Inspiration

This is the creative challenge I face this month. As a volunteer at an arts centre Inkwell we are having our fabulous annual May-day Event on the 6th May. Naturally, we are hoping that the day will be glorious and sunny like last year. Preparations are in full swing already and my role this year is garden aesthetics. With only a £50 budget to decorate the huge garden and veranda, the frugal artist in me has been looking at recycled designs for lighting and decor. I was amazed at what was being produced by such innovative artists and crafters. I thought it was only right to share with you some of the wonderful creations I found. They have given me a bundle of ideas, and faith that this is very much an achievable task.

I recently blogged about plastic bottles being used for lighting. I still really love this idea and here are some more photos to illustrate how effective this is. greenupgrader.com is a wonderful site full of recycled and upcycled craft ideas, interior design projects and more.

 

Shannon South from reMade USA, a handbag designer has come up with this prototype of a lampshade made from vintage crochet doilies. I love the intricate shadows that they cast and imagined how beautiful they would look cast over our veranda.

Visit treehugger for more great articles and ideas about ethical living and arts.

 

The Blue Trees by Konstantin Dimopoulos was a beautiful installation last year. The artist was trying to raise awareness of  deforestation by using a bright blue pigment painted onto the trunks of red alder trees, coinciding with the United Nations year of the Tree. The blue pigment lasted a few months and faded naturally and the tress continued to thrive once the Vancouver Biennale exhibition was over.  Taken from his website and the article from Canadian Interiors  he states:

Dimopoulos says.

“I hope that from these beginnings this work can create its own momentum that will see trees in cities worldwide become blue  – become visible. Through colour I am making a personal statement about the spirituality of trees and their importance to our very survival: trees are the lungs of the planet. Colour is a powerful stimulant, a means of altering perception and defining space and time. The fact that blue is a colour that is not naturally identified with trees suggests to the viewer that something unusual, something out of the ordinary has happened. It becomes a magical transformation.”

To see a blue tree in every garden and city would be an incredible sight that would indeed highlight how we have all taken these beautiful living beings for granted. It is something very close to my own heart as I am currently working on paintings and artwork using trees as the subject matter.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.