A City Life

Baby It’s Cold Outside

admin — Sat, 01 Oct 2011 14:22:50 +0000

It is a winter ritual in our house (as soon as the holidays pass) to swing by Whole Foods and purchase 20 Paperwhite Narcissus bulbs. I put them in a Ziploc bag (that I perforate with a hole punch) and toss them into my refrigerator’s crisper drawer. Every few weeks, I take 3 bulbs out of the crisper and force them into bloom. The bright green foliage and heavenly scent keep me going as temperatures dip and daylight disappears. Most spring-blooming bulbs can be forced into bloom. The most common choices are hyacinths, tulips, narcissus, grape hyacinths and crocuses. The most common hardy bulbs for forcing are crocuses (Crocus species), daffodils (Narcissus species), hyacinths (Hyacinthus species) and tulips (Tulipa species). Others that can easily be forced include Dutch iris (I. x hollandica) and netted iris (Iris reticulata), snowdrop (Galanthus species), grape hyacinth (Muscari species), winter aconite (Eranthis species), star-of-Bethlehem (Ornithogalum species), and Brodiaea species. Almost any container can be used for forcing bulbs but I prefer to use a glass vase. I fill it about 1/3 of the way with polished stones. I set the bulbs on the stones, nestle them in a bit (but you don’t need to cover them.) I find a warm sunny spot for the vase, and fill the vase with tap water about 1/2 inch above the rocks, I check the water daily. Then I sit back and watch, within a few days you will have bright green shoots, white roots that wrap around the stones, and then white fragrant flowers. They get a bit tall, so the vase helps support the plants. Because of the warmer indoor temperatures, the flowers do not last as long as outdoor flowers. But as soon as they begin to yellow, I pull them up from the stones and toss them in the compost bucket. I rinse the vase and stones with warm water (and a mild detergent) and then pull another three bulbs out of the crisper. P.S. If you wish to recycle bulbs for the garden, after-bloom care is critical. The key to success is keeping the foliage actively growing as long as possible. After the foliage has died back naturally, the bulbs can be planted directly in the garden or stored for later planting. If they do not perform well in the garden, do not be disappointed forced bulbs tend to peter out young.

Magic Lantern Slides

admin — Sat, 01 Oct 2011 14:22:05 +0000

I am always looking for new uses for the antiques and things I happen upon in junk stores and barns. I recently discovered a beautiful wooden box full of old glass slides. I took them home and after some research discovered they were Magic Lantern Slides. The Magic Lantern was the forerunner of the modern slide projector. In the 1840s, Philadelphia daguerreotypists, William and Frederick Langenheim, began experimenting with The Magic Lantern as an apparatus for displaying their photographic images. The brothers discovered a way to adhere a light sensitive solution onto glass for the creation of a negative. By using that negative to print onto another sheet of glass rather than onto paper, they were able to create a transparent positive image. With an oil lamp and a lens, the images painted on glass could be projected to a screen. The Langenheim’s envisioned their slides as forms of entertainment, charging a fee to watch their picture shows. However, within a few years, lantern slides began to fulfill a variety of purposes. While entertainment remained an important function well into the twentieth century, lantern slides had the greatest impact on educational lectures, especially in visual disciplines. They played a vital role in the development of disciplines such as art and architectural history, making possible the detailed study of objects and sites from around the world. These slides were produced with black and white photography and then hand colored, since color photography was not yet available. Due to the high demand at the time, the magic lantern industry was almost the equivalent of today’s computer industry.  The slides were produced in the hundreds of thousands, and covered just about every imaginable subject. Use of lantern slides lasted throughout the remainder of the nineteenth century and until the 1950s when their popularity began to decline with the introduction of the smaller 2×2 transparencies. Finally, the discovery of the Kodachrome three-color process made 35mm slides less expensive to produce than lantern slides. I am fondest of the colored slides of landscapes and children’s stories. They can be easily found and purchased on ebay. I have added to my collection through the years. Because New England winters can cause the landscape to be a bit bleak, I set my slides on the windowsills of my apartment. They are at eye level, backlit by the window, I love peering into the little scenes.

Spore Printing

admin — Sat, 01 Oct 2011 14:20:14 +0000

There are lots of ways to enjoy mushrooms. You can put them on your pizza, hunt for them in the woods, study them under a microscope, or make art with them. Mushrooms are fungi. Fungi make their food by eating dead leaves and wood (organic matter). They can not make their food from the sun like plants because they do not have any chlorophyll. In order to make more mushrooms, a mushroom will make tiny spores. These are produced on the undersides of the cap. When the conditions are right, a mushroom will release the spores from the gills. The spores will fall down and be carried away by a breeze. When the spores land, if the conditions are right, each spore will make another mushroom. Identification of mushrooms can be very difficult. Mushrooms are not like birds or wildflowers, where everything you see was described and named some time ago. Beyond the basic features of mushroom structure, size and habitat, the most important characteristic of a mushroom to know for its identification is its spore color. Moreover, making a “spore print” for determining spore color is something fun and interesting to do. To make a spore print, select your mushroom, preferably one that is fresh and undamaged. Decide whether the spore color is light or dark. The color of the gills may give you some clues. Select a piece of card, white or black depending on the selection as outlined above. Aluminum foil works well to. Remove the stalk from the mushroom and place it gill side down on the piece of card or foil. Place a jar over the top. This helps to keep it moist as well stopping any air movement dispersing the spores. While some spore prints can appear within a few hours, it’s often best to wait overnight, just to be sure. When you remove the cup and lift the mushroom cap, you should find a “print.” If you have been careful not to move the mushroom you will find that the spore print reflects the pattern of the mushroom’s gills or pores.

Sun Printing

admin — Sat, 01 Oct 2011 14:18:28 +0000

The cyanotype process was developed in 1842 as a photographic method to produce or duplicate images. Cyanotypes or sun prints make use of two photosensitive chemicals (ferric ammonium citrate and potassium ferricyanide) that become fixed and insoluble when exposed to ultraviolet light. A dried, pressed leaf or flat piece of lace is laid on a sheet of paper or cloth treated with the chemical emulsion. It is then exposed to light from the sun for several minutes. Following exposure the paper is washed in water to remove all the unexposed emulsion. When exposed to air a white silhouette-like image appears on a Prussian blue background.

One of the main uses of sun printing was for botanical prints, used by botanists exploring the West to record their finds for posterity; many of these botanical sun prints are now in museum collections. Sun printing fell out of practical use when replaced as a photography process by silver based photography, and replaced as a copying process by mimeography and xerography. But today it is enjoying a revival as an art form.

To make a sunprint today, you can order the treated photographic paper online, at www.lawrencehallofscience.org. Collect and place objects with a distinct shape on the special print paper. Make sure not to expose the paper to the sun until the objects are in place. Leave the paper with the objects on it in the sun for 2-5 minutes. You will know the print is done when the exposed paper turns almost white. Quickly take off the objects from the paper, making sure the paper is not exposed to sunlight. Then, place the paper in water. This stops the chemicals from reacting to the sunlight. The background will turn blue while the shadow of the object turns white.

What is a Nature Journal?

admin — Sat, 01 Oct 2011 14:15:38 +0000

Many explorers, scientists, writers, and naturalists of the past were dedicated journal-keepers, including Lewis and Clark, Charles Darwin, Henry David Thoreau, John Muir, and Rachel Carson. The observations, discoveries, and insights they recorded in their journals helped them achieve the things we remember them for today. You won’t find the word journaling in the dictionary. Simply put, nature journaling is the regular recording of observations, perceptions, and feelings about the natural world around you. Go find a piece of paper; it doesn’t matter what type or size. Find any pencil, marker, or drawing tool. Take a deep breath, and ask yourself: “What is happening outdoors, this particular season, this time of day, and in this particular place where I live?”   Draw a cloud or a bird flying by, trace a leaf or press a flower, photograph ivy vines on a building wall, a potted plant, or a garden flower. Don’t judge your work. You don’t have to be an accomplished artist. You are a simply recording what you see, in this moment.   Some journalers sketch, others paint or photograph, you can use whatever tools work best for you. Be very quiet, be very still. Slow your breathing and think only “bud,” “plant,” “bird.” After one minute or less, no more, record what you saw and go on to the next spot, keeping it relevant to season, time of day, and place. You have begun nature journaling. Some people prefer to record in written prose or poetry, some do it through drawing or painting, others with photographs or tape recordings, and still others through musical notation. Others like to incorporate the writings and thoughts of others to stimulate their own journaling. Many people use all or a combination of these techniques. People have entered lists of birds seen at certain hours. Some count insects in a square yard of field and record their findings. Others keep moon-phase and weather charts. You can write poems, draw poems, or carefully diagram and draw a dead gull you’ve come upon on the beach. The nature journal is yours to use as you wish Adapted from Keeping a Nature Journal, by Clare Walker Leslie & Charles E. Roth.

How to Make a Nature Print

admin — Sat, 01 Oct 2011 14:10:45 +0000

Since ancient times, humans have sought ways to preserve the ephemeral beauty of nature. Possibly inspired by leaf fossils, nature printing is believed to be an ancient practice. Leonardo da Vinci was one of the first to record the process of nature printing in the 1500s. The first female botanist in this country, Jane Colden, compiled a major volume describing the plants of New York and illustrated it with 340 nature-printed specimens.

In earlier times, inks or pigments were applied directly to the surface of leaves and other relatively flat natural subjects in order to capture images of their sizes, shapes, surface textures, and delicate vein or scale patterns. Typically both sides of a leaf were coated with ink and the leaf was then placed inside a folded sheet or between two sheets of paper. When rubbed by hand or run through a printing press, a mirror image was produced of the topside and underside of the same leaf. Often the prints were done in black ink and the flowers later painted or drawn in by the artist. In other cases a flattened, dried leaf or plant was coated once with black ink and then repeatedly printed in a printing press. The initial dark print was used as a work copy or proof print. The subsequent prints, with fainter traces of ink, were hand colored to more closely resemble the appearance of the real subjects.

Today nature printing is an inexpensive technique with limitless possibilities. You can create a print by applying ink to leaves, flowers, fruits, vegetables, mushrooms, leaves, seashells, feathers, even fish and spider webs.  All you need is an ink pad (you can also use felt tipped markers) and printmaking paper. These can be purchased at your local art store. Lay your specimen (the side with the more evident texture) onto the stamp pad. You can blot with a paper towel to remove excess ink if necessary. Move the inked specimen to the printing paper. Apply pressure to the specimen with your hand. Remove the specimen from your paper carefully. You should be left with a colorful print. Once you have mastered the technique you can try inking with two or three colors.