Tuesday 5 January 2010

The Erosion Bundle Project

This project organised by Kris Henderson over at http://erosionbundles.blogspot.com/ has caught my imagination:

Make a bundle of anything you like: fabric, paper, buttons etc. and then hang it in a tree or bury it in the ground until April. After that, open it up to see what Mother Nature has done to the items and make an art project out of them.

As a child I was always digging for treasure in the garden or burying things and then digging them up weeks later to see what had happened. I remember we had a funeral for a plastic soldier whose parachute had failed to open during a jump down the stairwell. I dug him up weeks later to see what had happened to him. (As I type this, I realise how macabre that sounds. I was just curious.) (At least it was a plastic man and not a pet. Now THAT would have been macabre.)

Of course, I got carried away and made more than one bundle:




This first one became, unintentionally, a romantic one. It's filled with lace, a key, heart-shaped sequins and pages torn from an old book of love spells. It's decorated with pink (yes, PINK!) ribbon from Fortnum and Masons. I have a feeling it's going to end up looking like a shrivelled Miss Haversham.


The second one is made up of an empty incense tube. I left one incense stick inside and then stuffed the tube with fabric, crayons, buttons and tissue.




This third is just all manner of things wrapped in the leftover wool from my hot-water bottle cover project and muslin.



My last (four, I know - I got carried away) is buried in the garden. The place is marked with a slab and terracotta pots. This one is a Christmas one in that I put the leftover bits I found around the house such as wrapping paper, paper hats, candle stubs and some holly berries. With each layer of paper and fabric I sprinkled some ground cinnamon.

My daughter got enthusiastic about the project when she saw me making my bundles and wanted to join in. She raided her toy boxes for all manner of items and these were also buried in the garden and are being guarded by a decoy duck:


Digging the ground when it's as hard as iron? Our frogs just didn't know WHAT to think!



I'm not promising to make anything wonderful with the results, but I'm very excited to see how the weather changes the things inside. Our tree looks more interesting, too!

Blessings,

Andi xx

12 comments:

  1. Oh Andi, you are so funny! I love the bewildered look on your frogs :0) Sounds like a very interesting project. You must let us know the end results! xx

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  2. That looks like a great idea...but I am not braving the cold just yet!
    I will wait with interest to see your results!
    ;-)

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  3. There's no way I could get a fork into our garden to bury anything at the moment!Sounds like an interesting project though.As a child my sister and I would be out digging...to Australia...we would say when Mum asked!

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  4. I think anything I'd bury would be dug up again straight away by the doggies. Hanging stuff in trees? Rofl, I can just imagine what the neighbours would think - yep, she has finally flipped.
    And now we have to wait FOUR months to find out what happened to your stuff, FOUR MONTHS!!! I suppose you can't take the occasional sneaky look can you?

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  5. Bonkers, stark raving bonkers... start the New Year the way you intend to continue:-)

    How are you getting on with Guernsey Potato Peelers? I read it on Boxing day, really enjoyed it, a wonderful novel, looking forward to discussing it in my book group at the end of January.

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  6. Actually, when my son was about 8 years old, he DID dig up his dead hamster... I think that is just things little boys do. I didn't ask what it looked like, though!

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  7. Hi Andi! What an interesting project...unfortunately I'd had to dig through three feet of snow first!
    Kim

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  8. Happy new year! Wonderful idea isn't it, the bundles! suzie. xxx

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  9. wow! you're going to have a lot of great material to work with!!!!!

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  10. Hi Andi,
    Thanks for visiting me at Brympton Towers, can't wait to see what your bundles turn into!!
    Happy New Year Susanx

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  11. Such interesting pictures. Can't wait to see how it all turns out.

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