Boden Dandelion

In the Dandelion Archive I have a sample of lovely fabric from Boden called Dandelion Heather - it was used for the Florence top a couple of years ago.
However, it is another example of an incorrect depiction of a dandelion (see post below too). Dandelions don't have leaves on the flowering stalks, so technically it's not a dandelion. Sorry to be picky. Maybe the designer wasn't too bothered whether or not it was accurate - which isn't so bad, only this design is just about the least dandelion looking dandelion i've seen.

Easter Dandelion

It's that time of year in the UK when we celebrate the chocolate industry and buy over priced, excessively wrapped egg shaped chocolate. Although this chocfest is at a different time of the year every year it happens to coincide with Easter too. What are the chances of that? So to mark this odd festival i found this old card. As it goes the dandelions don't have any sepals so it is technically incorrect - but it's a nice image all the same.

Coronation Street Sanderson Dandelions

Purely in the interests of research I watch Coronation Street as often as i can and in doing so have spotted a rather marvelous example of dandelions. Carla and love rat Peter have the Sanderson Dandelion Clock wallpaper on their apartment wall - how very posh. I  managed to get a screen shot of a rather sweaty Peter in front of the wall - ooooh if those dandelion clocks could talk...

Dandelion Crater

My Dandelion blog covers lots of dandelion related things: science and research, art and cultural references, folklore and stories etc and there seems to be an endless supply of material to put on the blog. With reference to the post below about Ray Bradbury's book Dandelion Wine I found that in 1971 the Apollo 15 astronauts named a crater on the moon after Bradbury's novel. So, dandelions are even on the moon too. Here is an image of Dandelion Crater and a link to the original image:

http://history.nasa.gov/alsj/a15/a15.lsp257.jpg

Happy National Dandelion Day!

Today is National Dandelion Day!! (according to the internet...)

So, to celebrate I recommend you go out and buy a copy of Ray Bradbury's Dandelion Wine. Written in 1957, it is a really wonderful book - poetic, sad and moving.
Here's the front cover of my copy with art work by designedbydavid.co.uk

Happy Dandelion Day!

National Dandelion Day!

I was thinking the other day that there really should be a National Dandelion Day and if i were to choose a date when would the best date be. Anyhow i did some tinternet browsing this morning and found that not only is there already a National Dandelion Day - but apparently it's tomorrow!!*

I'm struggling to find the origin of the day: who decided there should be one, why that date in particular etc, but with most things on the internet, if it's been written down - it must be true.

And so sharing the date with 'National Bell Bottoms Day' and 'National Read a Road Map Day' (i'm not kidding) 5th April is National Dandelion Day**. Brilliant!

*It's also mentioned on a couple of websites that it is the 1st Saturday of May every year - so i suppose you can take your pick.
**It also seems that most websites are American - so i'm supposing National refers to there and not UK, however I'm happy to celebrate the day. Probably with a beer.

Anna Atkins Dandelion

I mentioned in an earlier post that Fox Talbot had made a very early photograph of dandelion seeds in 1853, well Anna Atkins (1799 - 1871), recognized as the first female photographer, also made a very early cyanotype of a dandelion plant in 1854. The incredibly beautiful print is held in the V&A collection:

http://collections.vam.ac.uk/item/O82810/dandelion-taraxacum-officinale-british-and-photograph-atkins-anna/

Glasgow Dandelion

I was in Glasgow the other week on a trip to visit galleries and see a couple of people - and while exploring the city I saw this massive mural on the side of a building overlooking a car park. I'm reliably informed it's painted by the artist Smug and it shows Scottish wildlife through the seasons - and there's a huge, beautiful dandelion at the bottom right hand side of the wall. Fabulous! The cars in the image give you a sense of scale.

Weeds!

The poor dandelion - in with a list of the worst weeds that farmers have to deal with. I found this image in The Modern Children's Library of Knowledge - Book One: The World of Nature by Leslie Wolff and Geoffrey Spencer published by The Grolier Society Ltd in 1966

Glyphosate Concentrate

It's that time of year when the shelves in various shops are stocked with weed killers and pesticides ready for the new killing season of unwanted plants that crop up in garden lawns, paths, flowerbeds and patios. Being so recognizable, the dandelion if often used to promote weedkillers. The dandelion is a great plant for infuriating the perfectionist gardener with its persistent resilience.
Here, on a  Bayer Garden product, the dandelion is not only the star on the front of the packaging, but also in diagram form on the reverse - showing how the product is taken in by the plant to the roots.

Spring Dandelions

I've not mentioned real dandelions on the blog for a while - with being away in India for 2 months in November and December and then coming back to UK and it being winter - there hasn't been any of note around. I have continued to collect dandelion leaves for the Dandelion Diaries (apart from in India where i didn't find one example).
However, it's now the time of year that dandelions start to come out and i saw a few the other week starting to flower at the side of the road. This last week has been nice mild weather so dandelions are coming out in full force and providing the new queen bumblebees and other early insects with a vital food source.
I went to Brockholes Nature Reserve yesterday in the sunshine and there's also coltsfoot, celandine and lots of daffodils in full bloom - yellow is so in this season darling.

William Henry Fox Talbot Dandelion Seeds

I have a beautiful book Creations of a Moment: The Photography of William Henry Fox Talbot by Geoffrey Batchen, published by Phaidon Press, which is a celebration of the photographic work of Talbot (1800 - 1877).  Batchen says:

'Talbot experimented with photography throughout his life, making pioneering images of his home, Lacock Abbey, portraits of family and friends, and still lifes of plant specimens, pieces of lace, and many other objects of the time.'

I have no doubt that plate 51 in the book shows dandelion seeds. It's entitled 'Seeds' and was made c.1853. Revealing their beauty it must be one of the first photographic images of dandelion seeds.

Topocline by Paul Morrison

I was in Liverpool the other week and visited the Walker Art Gallery while there. In one of the galleries is this huge silhouette of a dandelion by Paul Morrison. It's been on display for a while - but i've not had my camera with me until now to get a shot of it.
Topocline was made in 2005 and is industrial powder coated aluminium and galvanised steel. 

Grayson Perry Dandelion

I went to see The Vanity of Small Differences at Manchester City Art Gallery the other week. It's an absolutely wonderful exhibition with 6 large tapestries by Grayson Perry. Inspired by William Hogarth's A Rake's Progress, the tapestries show the influence of class on aesthetic taste.
I noticed a rather beautiful dandelion on The Upper Class at Bay - shown at the front of the image above.

The show is no longer at Manchester Art Gallery, but has moved on to Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery until May 11th - so you have plenty of time to go and see the the exhibition.

Dandelion Wine (sort of)

My friend sent me something from Canada for the Dandelion Archive a while ago - it's the label off a bottle of Argentinian wine she bought - she dropped it in the post to me with a note:

'I didn't notice the label until I was well into the bottle (hence the poor job cleaning and peeling it off ha, ha)'

Well, in the interests of the Dandelion Archive I think she's done a splendid job and the label is now catalogued and safely in the archive of all things dandelion related.

Dandelions and barbecues

Here is another really random use of a dandelion on a 5kg bag of Tesco's lumpwood charcoal for barbecues. I collected a piece of the bag from a friend last summer - it's a bit torn as they were about to throw it out. I like the way the image fades to smog at the top of the bag - lighter fuel and charcoal smoke induced no doubt. I can smell the under cooked, but burnt meat from here - ah, the smell of a lukewarm suburban summer evening - lovely.

Raffaello Sanzio's dandelion

Ages ago I went to Rome for a few days to visit galleries and museums and eat lovely food and drink great wine - a fab trip.
While there I visited the Galleria Borghese - an amazing museum with some of the world's most incredibly beautiful artworks, and it was while in the gallery i spotted a dandelion.
If you look very carefully it's in the bottom left corner - a tall dandelion with a head of seeds in a perfect globe - in this La Deposizione di Cristo painted in 1507 by Raffaello Sanzio. Standing on it's own on pretty bare ground i'm not sure what it symbolizes here - the transition of life from one state into another perhaps?

St Brigid and Dandelions!

In March 2010 I posted information on the symbolism of the dandelion and how it is the flower of St Brigid - but also how i'd never found an image showing St Brigid with a dandelion. On the blog I quoted a lovely poem by Winifred Mabel Letts (1882 - 1972)

The dandelion lights its spark 
Lest Brigid find the wayside dark. 
And Brother Wind comes rollicking
For joy that she has brought the spring.
Young lambs and little furry folk 
Seek shelter underneath her cloak. 

I received an email the other day from a lady called Bairbre in Dublin to say she had a copy of the image that accompanied and poem published by Cuala Press (run by Elizabeth and Lily Yeats - sisters of William and Jack Butler Yeats) - and she could send me a scan for the blog. Fabulous! 
And what a delightful drawing it is by Kathleen Verschoyle, the step daughter of WM Letts.

Don't forget it's St Brigid's feast day on 1st February - celebrate the coming of spring!

Preston City Council Poster

I have some pretty random things in the dandelion archive - here is a 2005 poster from Preston City Council and the Preston Primary Care Trust:

It's coming, we are aiming for a smoke free Preston. All vehicles and buildings will be smoke free from 1st November 2005.

The dandelion seed head is often used to symbolize fresh air - a blowing breeze etc... Maybe in this case it also refers to the time passing before the rules are enforced?  Or i might be over thinking that one. I found the poster in a disused council building - apparently empty since 2005 with this old poster still on the notice board.

Sanderson dandelion cup and saucer

Still on a Sanderson theme I also have one of their lovely Dandelion Clock cup and saucers in the dandelion archive. As you can see i'm also trying to get good studio shots of all the objects in the archive so everything is properly documented.

I've not dared to use the cup and saucer and they still have their labels on, unlike the oven gloves (see below) that are well and truly used and abused daily.

Sanderson oven gloves

Here are my beautiful Sanderson Dandelion Clocks Collection double oven gloves that are now in the dandelion archive (well, actually they are now in my kitchen looking beaten up with a year's worth of oven marks on - very well used and loved).

Sanderson Dandelions

Ever on the look out for dandelion designs and objects I have a few Sanderson textile and wallpaper samples in the dandelion archive i'm making. A popular design it's used in various colour ways and on many objects - trays, pens, oven gloves, cups etc... Here is Sanderson's Dandelion Clocks Red.

Indian Dandelions

I'm here in Mumbai for 2 months - on a Gasworks International Fellowship and i'm staying on the outskirts of the city in the north at an artist organisation called CONA. It's wonderful here as we're right next door to the Sanjay Gandhi National Park so I can see kites, parakeets, sunbirds and lots of butterflies all around where I am staying.
However, I haven't found one dandelion specimen for the collection - which is a shame. And then last night i found this little gem on the bookshelf in the house: it's a book called Flower Thoughts, A Selection. Edited by Louise Bachelder and with wonderful illustrations by the incredible Eric Carle. The quote to accompany this illustration of a dandelion is by Henry Ward Beecher:

You cannot forget if you would, those golden kisses all over the cheeks of the meadow, queerly called dandelions.

Lovely.

Mandela House dandelion

Last weekend I went to see Mandela House at 8115 Orlando West in Soweto. Nelson Mandela moved there in 1946 with his first wife Evelyn Ntoko Mase and his first son. It's now a little museum. It's a very moving place, humble, simple - but that's what makes it such a powerful place.
There isn't a garden as such, but around the house it's all brick paving - and it's here that i found the tiniest dandelion in a crack between the bricks.

Dandelions in South Africa

I'm in South Africa!
I'm here for a month on a residency - it's just outside Johannesburg out in the country with amazing and wonderful plants I've never seen before.
However, as usual i've been on the lookout for dandelions and i found a few little ones in the lawns around the house where i'm staying. I've now found quite a few in different locations and will put some more images on during this week sometime.

Peter Scott Gallery

I'm really thrilled that the Peter Scott Gallery in Lancaster has purchased two of my dandelion prints for their permanent collection. Both screen prints were made as a result of a residency I did at LICA (Lancaster Institute for the Contemporary Arts) in 2011. 
Here's one of the prints Dandelions x 20

Lewis F Day Dandelion

I'm always on the look out for dandelion designs in all art forms...
This incredibly beautiful wooden panel is designed by Lewis F Day (1845 - 1910) a British designer and author of many books on design and ornament.

Stanley Spencer Dandelions

I went to London last weekend for a couple of meetings and while there I got the chance to visit Tate Britain.
I'm always on the look out for dandelions in art and spotted these in The Resurrection, Cookham (1924 - 7) by Stanley Spencer. For more information on his work and this painting at the Tate go here:

http://www.tate.org.uk/art/artworks/spencer-the-resurrection-cookham-n04239

Monster!

While in Transylvania earlier this month I saw this wonderful / freakish dandelion with 10 flower heads on one stalk. In the past I have noticed dandelions with two or three heads, but never this many - amazing abnormal thing.

Papadie

I have just returned from 3 weeks working in Romania on a residency for another project, but as always, I still managed to collect specimens of the dandelions there. I collected leaf specimens for the Dandelion Diaries from every location on each day - so I have quite a few to sort through.

The Romanian for dandelion is papadie and they were fully in flower while i was there - bright and beautiful.

Leeds Dandelions

I was in Leeds yesterday with my friend Elaine to visit the Northern Art Prize at the City Art Gallery.
As always I collected a couple of dandelion leaves, this time from a little derelict plot near St Thomas Row.

It was a mixed day as it took me over 3 hours to get from Preston to Leeds: the original train was cancelled, i was kicked off the next train as my ticket wasn't valid for that particular train company, i had to catch a bus to another train station so i could resume my journey with my particular ticket arriving over 3 hours later... Elaine pointed out the irony of it being on the day Thatcher was buried. 

Archetype

The dandelion is the archetype weed and its image is used on most packets and containers for weed killers. Lawn lovers who aspire to keep a perfectly green and pest free lawn hate the dandelion. Along with the many weed killers on the market there are also gardening tools specifically designed to help root out dandelions from your lawn.

I am really interested in how a plant species can insight so much frustration and animosity as if deliberate in its intention. I quite like the idea of irate individuals spending their time worrying about a flower in the wrong place. A continual battle, year after year striving for their ideal of perfection.

It's a mocking plant - beautiful, unmissably bright yellow and not bothered.

Liverpool World Museum Dandelions

I was lucky to be invited to see the herbarium at Liverpool World Museum the other day. I was able to look at some of their dandelion specimen sheets held in their extensive collection. I was particularly interested in specimens collected locally to Liverpool and Lancashire. The dandelions are so beautiful, but stark when pressed - the outlines so pronounced when viewed in silhouette on white paper. 
And it was really great to talk to both botanists at the museum Geraldine and Wendy who gave me masses of information and whose enthusiasm for the subject was infectious and very inspiring.

Dandelion Stamps

I got this first day cover the other day through the post - it's German and dated 13.10.77
The envelope features a dandelion design (and is embossed with a gold outline which doesn't come out on the image) and one of the set of four stamps shows a dandelion illustration.

I've seen there are many more postage stamps depicting dandelions on from: Austria, UK, Poland, Norway, Japan, Antigua and Barbuda, Mongolia, Estonia, North Korea, Ireland, Afghanistan and Iceland. I expect to find more too.

Symbol of Hope

I've been looking at the symbolism of the dandelion flower and its seed head. The seed head is often used to represent hope and making wishes and a while ago I collected a leaflet from Macmillan, the cancer support charity, highlighting their tribute fund.
Time passing, scattering our wishes in the breeze, the continuation of a life - one image of the dandelion gives us all this.

www.macmillan.org.uk/tributefunds

Simon Plum Dandelions

I was at the Harris Museum and Art Gallery here in Preston on Friday and on the stairway is an exhibition by Simon Plum - a local printmaker. His drawings and prints reveal illustrations of strange scenes with animals, plants and people in odd settings.

I was interested to see dandelions in one of his prints - shown here. 

Down the Garden Path runs until April 14th - so you've got plenty of time to see the exhibition for yourself at the Harris Museum and Art Gallery in Preston.

Jean-Francois Millet

I've been researching dandelions and their representation in art for a while now and i've been finding images of them in paintings, drawings and objects etc... 

Above is a painting by Jean-Francois Millet called Dandelions. It was painted in 1867 - 68 and is held in the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston USA. Please visit their website for more details. It says it's not on display - so perhaps hold off going to check it out in the flesh.

http://www.mfa.org/collections/object/dandelions-31640

In Residence

I have a couple of screen prints and a drawing of dandelions in an exhibition that opened last week at the Peter Scott Gallery in Lancaster.

The gallery is open Monday - Friday 11am - 5pm 
Saturday 11am - 4pm

The show In Residence runs until March 22nd and is free

Other artists in the exhibition are Conrad Atkinson, Daniel Sturgis, Rob Kesseler and Invisible Flock

Go and take a look if you have time - it's a great gallery.

www.liveatlica.org

More Tea

There are a few teas on the market with dandelion in - so i'm trying to collect examples for the dandelion archive - and also take photographs of the packaging.

Here is some detox herbal tea from Birt and Tang - that will 'help you cope with life in today's environment' apparently.

Sorry

It's been a very long time since the last post - over a year in fact - sorry.
I've been busy doing other projects (in case you're interested):

www.bronteweather.blogspot.com

However, i am still collecting many dandelion specimens from wherever I go and the archive of dandelion related artifacts and objects is growing slowly.
So, i'm going to try and update the blog in the next few weeks with stuff and things...

Here is a box of yummy looking pissenlit tea (looses it's appeal somehow in another language).