When I go running, I still entertain myself by trying to remember the different species of trees I learned back in Field Botany, a class which satisfied my college requirement for natural sciences and my tendency to hobble around looking up into the trees.
Acer saccharinum, Betula nigra, Liquidambar styraciflua...
No, I am not a botanist. I'm an artist. I studied sculpture, painting, and printmaking, because I just couldn't decide which I like best, and because I like combining all of those things. I teach 3rd-8th graders about those things now, and work at a local florist to get my botanic/artistic juices flowing.
And I do this.
I have a love for leaves and plants and flowers. I panic when it's december and I have forgotten to plant my bulbs, or when there are no tall, beautiful trees to be seen. That's why, after making a flower crown for a lovely friend's wedding, I couldn't stop scouting out the loveliest leaves and flowers and berries and branches. I had to keep curating them, keep finding them and putting them together, in hopes that someone else would find beauty in the assemblage.
The home I grew up in had been a Homearama dream house in bygone years, and it was covered with floral print walls and fabrics. My theory is these things seeped into my psyche and now I can't get them out. I love all things vintage and floral. Combined with the propensity to wander off into fields identifying weedy blooms (is that Ladies Thumb?) these hair accessories are the product of me. I search arduously for my materials, even traveling to NYC on "treasure hunts". The pieces in each crown and clip are carefully selected and stewed over until the correct combination is found, all while I sit before the old plate glass window in my third story studio looking onto my town's community garden and one very old oak tree. I hope these things, somehow, are imbued in these pieces. I just love making beautiful, useful things, and I hope you'll enjoy them, too.

If you'd like you can hear more of my ramblings about art, life, and cooking at http://www.thesaltboxblog.blogspot.com