Lavender in a Weathered Pot

I am so pleased with this new technique! It is an amalgamation of several lavender tutorials I checked out yesterday. The foliage is, of course, lycopodium; there is as yet no artificial substitute for this. It does, with time, deteriorate somewhat. The pot is a repainted resin miniature, aged and mossed and with some algae added to it.

For the lavender blossoms, I used a slightly coarse white sand, and glued and shaped it to the tip of the wires. The sand was then painted in grey-green, the same colour used for the stems and the foliage. Once that was thoroughly dry, I dry-brushed it with lavender paint right out of the bottle. I let that dry for an hour or so, then used a nearly completely dry brush with purple paint and just stroked it on. Do enlarge the photo, I think this will be my go-to method for now for lavender!

This pot will sit on a short plinth, still to be made. It will also be aged, as if it has been in the garden for many years. At my Real Life house, there is a lavender bush outside my front door, more than 25 years old. We almost lost it a couple of winters ago, but aggressive pruning had brought it back to life. It is still under snow and leaf mulch right now, but I hope to uncover it in a couple of weeks. We are not frost-free in my neck of the woods until the end of May.

The foliage wasn't grey enough for my tastes, so after it dried I dry-brushed it with light grey paint, just on the tips; this gave it more of an effect of powdery grey. Another trick learned!