Fruscio

I was invited to join this collaboration when I was about to leave for Australia and wanted to come back with the drawings of my word so that i could submit it in time. I organised an extra few days to submit it.

Here is the brief: I had to write the word so that it could be scanned onto a photo of a wall.
The word is fruscio (rustling, whispering). It is the sound of the wind in the trees. When you spell it out loud, you can really hear it. Everybody loves it. In the Bosco della Ragnaia, my garden in San Giovanni d’Asso, in Tuscany, the word is carved in stone. So people can hear it too, even though maybe it is not present.

I saw an image somewhere of lettering made with twigs. This inspired me, but I’ve never seen the sort of twigs I can use, here in the UK. In Cape Town we had Blue Gum trees – which were always dropping their twigs (my husband swept them almost daily) and they are delicate and twiggy. The Blue Gum is endemic to Australia, and while staying at my brothers’, I put the word together and took a photo. I loved the leaves and berries which I had not envisaged, but which enhanced the design.

The image had to be black and white and the photograph did not have the contrast I needed. When I got home, I scanned it and traced it on my lightbox and painted it. You don’t get Brownie badges for not taking short cuts and my drawing is as accurate as tracing but more time consuming!