Gardening
Create Works of Art with Flowers
Create art and preserve a bit of the garden with flower pounding.
Photo courtesy of MelindaMyers.com
Preserve a few memories of this summer's garden or create gifts to share with family and friends. Pounding flowers onto fabric or paper is a fun and easy way to preserve the beauty of garden flowers.
Use watercolor or other rough surface paper when pounding on paper. Purchase ready to dye (RTD) or prepared for dying (PFD) fabric or prepare the fabric yourself. You'll find supplies and directions at most craft stores.
Prepare a space for pounding flowers onto paper or fabric. A large cutting board or piece of wood will protect the furniture below. Or better yet move this project outside onto the sidewalk or other surface that can't be damaged by the pounding.
Cover the surface with wax paper and secure with masking tape to prevent the flower color from soaking through onto the cutting board. Cut the fabric to size and secure it or the paper to the board with masking tape.
Gather a few of your favorite leaves and flowers. You will have great results from thin brightly colored petals and leaves. Consider starting with rose, daisy, geranium, petunia, and pansy petals although any flowers and leaves can work. Remove or reduce the size of the large center of coneflowers, black-eyed Susans and similar blooms so they lay flat on the fabric. Or remove the petals, discard the center, and arrange as desired.
Remove any stems, sepals, or other plant parts you do not want to transfer. Then place the desired parts face down on the paper or fabric.
Once your design is set, cover with several layers of paper towel or another sheet of watercolor paper. Taping leaves and petals in place on fabric helps reduce the risk of petals moving during the pounding process.
Gently tap the leaves and flowers in place using the flat side of a hammer. Next, evenly hammer from one side of the design to the other, making sure to hit every part of each plant.
Lift the paper covering and remove the crushed flowers and leaves from the paper along with the tape from the fabric. Allow your design to dry and carefully brush off any remaining plant pieces.
Set the design on fabric using an iron set on the hottest setting without steam. This sets the colors but will not make it washable. Preserve the bright colors of your works of art on paper with a UV protective acrylic spray. Be sure to read and follow label directions and apply in a well-ventilated area.
Pounding flowers is a fun project for all ages. It is a simple way to transfer a plant's natural dye onto paper or fabric to create works of art, greeting cards and more. For more gardening projects visit MelindaMyers.com.
Melinda Myers has written more than 20 gardening books, including The Midwest Gardener's Handbook, 2nd Edition and Small Space Gardening. She hosts The Great Courses "How to Grow Anything" DVD series and the nationally-syndicated Melinda's Garden Moment TV & radio program. Myers is a columnist and contributing editor for Birds & Blooms magazine. Her web site is www.MelindaMyers.com.
Antiques
Newer Collectibles Bringing Huge Prices
When I started selling antiques and collectibles during the 1980s, toys from the 1950s were selling very in vogue. Roy Rogers and Hopalong Cassidy toys, Ginny and some of the first Barbie dolls were in high demand. As the generation that grew up with those shows grew older, the toys became in less demand and toys and collectibles from the 1960s took their place. Demand continues to shift as one generation stops collecting and new generations look for items from their youth.
Some modern collectibles that were just starting to be produced or weren't even made yet when I started selling things in the 1980s are bringing huge auction prices.
Transformers are a popular toy that came out during the 1980s. According to the Hasbro Toys website, "Transformers are living, human-like robots with the unique ability to turn into vehicles or beasts." Like every other collectible, buyers want the most perfect example they can afford. Also as with many collectibles, there are companies that grade items. For example, the Collectibles Grading Authority (CGA) uses the AFA (Action Figure Authority) scale when grading Transformers. A 1984 Transformers Series 1 “Starscream” action figure grading AFA 90 NM+/MT sold for nearly $6,000 in 2019. A "Shockwave AFA 75 75/80/90 1986 Sealed Vintage G1 Transformers Hasbro Figure" went for $7,100 in May of this year. A "Transformer Series 2 Jetfire" with a very high AFA 90+ NM+/MT grade brought over $21.000 last year.
A sealed vintage video game can bring incredible prices. CGA also grades video games using a VGA (Video Game Authority) scale. Another company, WATA, also grades video games. WATA is a division of “Collector's Universe” whose PSA (Professional Sports Authenticator) group also grades cards and authenticates autographs. Collector's Universe also owns PCGS (Professional Coin Grading Service).
Some auction prices from last week reflect the demand for video games. A “Casino Kid” NES Nintendo Sealed Video Game grading at WATA 9.6/A+ sold for $1,100. A Grandia PS1 PlayStation Sealed Video Game with the same grade also brought the same price. A Dr. Mario NES Nintendo with the same WATA 9.6 rating brought $2,750.
Before I list some of the video game record prices, I'd be remiss if I didn't note that some of the collectibles auction prices are suspect. Every year or so, a newspaper or internet article suggests that Disney VHS tapes with black diamonds are going to sell for five figure sums. Snopes reports this to be false and lists examples of black diamond tapes selling in the $20 range. USA reported in July that one of the grading companies is facing a lawsuit for artificially inflating the values of video game prices to increase demand for their services.
With that caveat, here are some video game auction prices. NPR reported that a prototype of one of the first video games, Pong, sold for $270,000 in March. A UPI article reported that a 1990 Madden football video game set a record for a video game when it went for $480,000. The Smithsonian Magazine reported that a 1996 copy of Nintendo's Super Mario set an auction record when it reached $1.56 million. The toys from the 1950s Western TV shows had to move over there's a new sheriff in town.
We are still accepting consignments for our November multi-estates auction. My "Evaluating your Antiques" class takes place at Bay Path High School on September 13th. I'll be at appraisal events at the Townsend Historical Society on October 15th, the Worcester Senior Center from on October 18th and the Leicester Senior Center on November 5th. Please visit our website www.centralmassauctions.com for links to upcoming events.
Contact us at: Wayne Tuiskula Auctioneer/Appraiser Central Mass Auctions for Antique Auctions, Estate Sales and Appraisal Services www.centralmassauctions.com (508-612- 6111) info@centralmassauctions.com