Here in the UAE we only have two seasons, summer in the mid to high 40s C & winter in the 20s C. The change in temperatures between seasons is very welcome but due to the harsh summer conditions there isn't a huge variety of plants that will survive and therefore most of the fresh flowers are airflown in daily from Holland. They are beautiful but it gets very expensive to be constantly buying fresh ones for display.
I don't think about the other seasons so much these days but I did notice in one of the homeware stores this weekend that it was decorated ready for Spring.
There were special pastel toned bowls, flowery cushions, blossoms of different varieties and colourful plants as if to herald the beginning of a season we don't even experience in this part of the world.
They weren't fresh flowers they were artificial. I've never been much of a lover of plants other than fresh ones but these days they've improved tremendously from the old plastic varieties and are really quite lifelike and appealing so I decided to buy a small bright yellow plant for my desk.
On getting it home I thought that it'd probably look better with a small container for it to sit in. I scoured my overflowing cupboards for just the right sized pot but couldn't find anything that would be suitable so I decided to make one out of Hanji.
This is what I did.
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| Cut a long strip of cardboard to fit around the plant. Score it every 1cm. |
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| Check to make sure it fits. |
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| Cut out a circle for the base. |
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| This is how it should fit |
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| Cut out & glue papers for the inside of the pot |
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| Glue the sides to the base and then tape |
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| I printed a photo onto Hanji to get the effect I wanted. |
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| Paper the outside of the pot |
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| Finished |
The picture is of a brick wall and the pattern is a traditional design representing prosperity and long life but you don't need to use photos and any Hanji paper would be OK. It took about an hour to make and it's just what I wanted.
Hanji is such a versatile craft and if you have an idea in mind of what you want then it's likely you can make it with a little bit of imagination and 'thinking outside the box(pot)'.
Here in the UAE we only have two seasons, summer in the mid to high 40s C & winter in the 20s C. The change in temperatures between seasons is very welcome but due to the harsh summer conditions there isn't a huge variety of plants that will survive and therefore most of the fresh flowers are airflown in daily from Holland. They are beautiful but it gets very expensive to be constantly buying fresh ones for display.
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