gathering Thistles - seeing baskets... collint Cards - veient cistells...

Illyrian thistle (Onopordum illyricum)

On one of our first days exploring the Parc Natural dels Ports in May this year I was struck by the variety of Thistle species growing along the roadsides and their diversity of form - from dwarf stemless crowns of grey woolly leaves to thickets of spiky stems. The structure of the flowerheads is truly incredible with recurved spines, additional barbs and protected purple tubes of flowers crammed together at the centre. Manipulating the images of the flowerheads to monochrome exaggerates their sculptural forms.

En un dels primers dies descobrint el Parc Natural dels Ports al mes de maig, hem va sorpendre la varietat d'espècies de cards que creixen al costat de les carreteres i la diversitat de formes que ténen.
L'estructura de les flors és realment increïble amb espines corbades, pues adicionals i tubs de color porpra protegits amb flors apinyades al centre.  Manipulant les imatges de les flors a monocrom, exagera les seves formes escultòriques.

Looking at these forms I imagine baskets - nature provides an endless variety of circular forms in all manner of shapes and sizes that can provide us with both inspiration and raw material. It is one thing to imagine and another to make! Gathering the thistles is a tricky and painful business, removing the stem prickles we played with making arrangements along the road only disturbed by passing traffic as soon as we had set up an arrangement! We will dry the harvested stems and see how they behave and perhaps continue working with them in a couple of months time.....

Mirant aquestes formes, imaginem cistells - la natura ens proporciona una varietat sense fi de formes circulars en tot tipus de formes i mides que ens poden donar inspiració i materia primera.  Una cosa és imaginar i un altre de diferent es fer!  Collir cards és una tasca difícil i dolorosa.  Vam treure algunes espines i vam jugar a fer alguns arranjaments a la carretera, només pertorbats pel trànsit tant aviat com teniam un arranjament a punt!  Assecarem els cards per veure com es comporten i potser continuar treballant amb ells d'aquí a un parell de mesos...

Gathering Milk Thistles (Silybum marianum)