Even though I didn't get good pix of this year's crop of crocus, I was able to pick some of them to make crocus prints. I've done this in past years with more success, and I think that this year I didn't have a high enough cotton content paper. I'll fix that by next year.
Anyway...what I've done here is to pick some of the most vibrant crocus & place them between pieces of "handmade" paper with some floral inclusions. Once the crocus are in position, I pound the back of the top paper with a hammer...just a regular hammer that I've had for years to hang pix on the wall & stuff like that. I do this on a sturdy surface with a cushion of some newsprint or something to protect the surface...in this case...the kitchen counter.
The result is 2 crocus prints...mirror images of each other. For some reason, this year, the prints weren't very vibrant...I guess the crocus had started to fade too much. It's best to do this at the first sign of the blooms.
The print above has some of the crocus petals & stamens still imbedded in it. That's a nice touch.
Finally, I took one of the faded out prints & enhanced it with some watercolors. I kinda like it.
Please feel free to copy and save these images to use in your artwork. I'd love to see what you create with them...add your link in the comments.