Ostrich Ferns & Homemade Paper



Beginning to compile a real nice collection of pressed plants & flowering grasses. What I love most about this, is learning & becoming acquainted with the flora native to my environment. 

Most of these specimens are coming from outside my back door around the pond. It’s so funny how I’ve never noticed these little beauties until now…

Other then that, I have a few other projects underway that I’m really pleased to share on Haiku House.

Today’s post will introduce two of them. I say two, but I suppose it’s really just one big project…



A myriad of large ferns & palms resided behind one of the last jobs we were on. The ferns were huge…Longer than my arm!

Five of them came home with me & I immediately went to work pressing them. It can definitely become a time sensitive project and the ferns were already showing signs of languish.

Thank goodness, I had two 4′ x 2′ pieces of thick plywood on hand that  I covered with wax paper. 

With care, I laid out the ferns and taped the stems down. They are currently being pressed between the wood now.





After just a couple days I really wanted to see how they were looking & got totally caught off guard by how alluring they are but they need to stay compressed for awhile longer. In the meantime, let me introduce project number two…Dyed paper.

In my effort to work towards simplicity & order, I’m using (repurposing) the junk mail that’s been collecting in our garage for awhile.



I had a pile of all the outer envelopes that I threw in the recycling bin. Then there was a ‘don’t use at all’ pile that had sensitive information & finally a pile of junk paper that was ready to be ripped apart.

This won’t be an overnight process since we have a business to run. I will of course document these projects though at each stage! 

I tore up all the junk mail into small shreds & now need to assemble the mesh looking box that you eventually press the paper in.

There are a couple DIY Paper instructions I’m reading so I need to figure out which one is best because I want to naturally dye my paper black.

I’m making this paper as the backing that I will arrange the ferns on. So I believe black will be a nice contrast with the green ferns. If not black, then maybe a dark eggplant shade of purple. The plan is to dye the paper naturally…need to research this more.

Finally, I’m going to frame it & hang it above our sectional. 

So I’m very happy to share all this with you & I hope it will inspire you to create your own beautiful pieces of artwork for your home.

Be blessed,

-HH