Buried Treasure

A few months ago I started an online class with India Flint. I have admired her work for a long time. Quite a few years ago I purchased a number of her books and took the plunge and started using the techniques in the books to eco dye and make botanical contact prints. Having not been in a position to undertake one of her week long classes I thought that I would give her online class a go. Anyway, I have been dipping in and out of the course.

This little book is one of activities in the class. Constructed of many pages of stitched paper and fabric with a wrap around cover. The idea was to take the little book wrap it in a cloth and then bury it for a few months. It was white when it went in the ground a few months ago. 

What did I discover? Amazingly the book was still intact and it had developed a a lot of colour. The string broke into small pieces as I unwrapped the bundle, the outer cloth had also started to disintegrate.

The damask cloth on the outside cover has taken on lots of colour.

A few pages

Some have fared better than others

The rusted metal pieces have  worked really well

Interesting to see how different fabrics have reacted 

Some of the leaves could be removed easily

The fragility of the disintegrating  outer cloth. It really was a surprise to unearth my buried treasure.