After rosemary

Here's where my Disintegration Project bundle spent part of this Winter and Spring, tied to the rosemary bush on my allotment. I thought it would come home smelling fragrant. It just smells a bit damp.

We have been having a very spectacular Spring, hotter than usual, lots of blue skies and far fewer downpours than we would normally expect at this time of the year. So, despite being happy at seeing wonderful blossom streams running down the pavements and rains of seeds flowing down from the trees, I was expecting my package to be dried to a crisp more than anything.

So, here are some scans showing what I found. The first is the lovely blue rag paper I used as a wrapper which has held onto some of that blue behind where the ties and wires sat. Bleached to almost white on the outside, I love the tightrope walker stick person who has emerged. New character in a story, I suspect, or possibly their ghost or reflection....

A beautiful spider was unhappy to be disturbed from a little hiding place beside some ground up pastels and the bark type fabric I had packed. He ran off with some party makeup down one side of his body. Much as I don't mind a spider in the house, I figured he might not like his sudden forced move to the city, so I put him outside and I hope he might like a front garden full of bluebells better than my flat.

Most of my materials looked pretty much as they did when I wrapped them up. Air dried. I guess I might bury things another time, except having had a bit of a dig on my plot the other day, the soil is as dry as the breeze at the moment and we've had the watering cans out already.

The next shots show the most dramatic changes. Although that red tissue paper must never have got the proper soaking I was hoping for, I like how the luggage tag has blurred. The tea bag is a little world of beauty that will probably 

inspire some poetic words soon. I just love the pink there against the greenish tint from the copper. In case you can't make out the words, they say - words disintegrate but the memory of them remains.

The final scan shows bits of colour bleed. The metal beach finds and the teabags were the most helpful items. I like the speckles. They remind me of old mildewed photos and books in musty attics, the patterns you see on old mirrors.

When I am out-of-sorts, it's usually because I have spent too long indoors, so this is one of my little reminders to do the right thing, and it's great that the colours bled in. I didn't want this paper coming back pristine.

Without the bundle, the rosemary bush is now looking out towards the company of some cane wigwams that wait for the slender fingers of sweet peas to grab hold and start their eager climb towards the height of  Summer. They are reaching out already.

This has been such a great project to take part in. It has generated such a buzz from those taking part as well as those who are not. That's quite something in itself.

You can check out what's going on with the other bundles by visiting Seth's blog The Altered Page here, and later in the year there will be more pieces emerging from what folks have found inside the bundles. 

Cheers to Seth for his boundless energy and enthusiasm for bringing this project together.