Today’s project calls for using your pressed flowers in a physical materia medica. I will be making a slight alteration. I intend to keep my materia medica in an online format, so this binder will be more of an herbarium: a pressed plant sample along with it’s collection information. That being said, please enjoy the slides below to see the assembly process.
I purchased this 3” 3-ring binder from an Etsy seller. I honestly can’t think of a binder that would be more appropriate to hold a materia medica than this beauty.
Here we have a mimosa branch I collected and pressed some time ago. I really like this sample as not only are there an abundance of leaves, but you also see fresh flowers and a seed pod.
The only problem is the speciment is a bit too robust for my 8.5”x11” format.
It doesn’t show up well in photos, but this is handmade A4 cream paper with a deckle edge. It has this beautiful rough texture that should set the plant off nicely and add a lovely weathered and aged appearance.
With a small pair of shears and some patience, I have trimmed the specimen down to something that will fit on the page, but still show off all the important parts of my specimen.
Now to add the details. Using a calligraphy pen, I added the common name, the scientific name, the geographic coordinates where I found the specimen, and the altitude at which it was found.
I slid the entire speciment into a clear plastic page protector and into the binder it goes for safekeeping.
Hello! I’m a full time nurse, part time photographer, and I’m currently on a mission to visit every country, every state, and every U.S National Park. Follow along at my blog www.alissaweaver.com if you want to read more.