Happy Bank Holiday Monday to my UK readers and hello new week to the rest of you. It’s Vive la Différence Monday and that’s always something I look forward to.
Let me introduce you to Caroline, author of Trend Daily. Caroline lives with her family in the Chiltern Hills in Buckinghamshire and is an interiors stylist. Her blog is an on-line visual diary where she photographs her everyday thoughts and ideas.
For new readers:
The concept: each month I will invite one blogger. They will create and showcase one image/vignette. There are 20 themes and 20 objects for my guest to choose from. They choose 1 theme and up to 3 objects. I will then create an image/vignette based on their choice. Everyone has free reign on how to create the image. It can be simple photography, a drawing, a collage, a hand-painted image, a styled table top… the choice is yours! The fun part is that you, my readers, will see 2 versions inspired by the same subject matter. There is no right or wrong. There’s just ‘different’.
Caroline chose the theme: 50 shades of …. with the objects: Flowers and Colours. Here is Caroline’s Vignette.
50 shades of Decay
Hi everyone, I’m Caroline – an interiors stylist with a little visual diary blog on the side and a slight addiction to photographing nature in it’s decaying form! Looking through Tina’s list of subject choices, flowers and colour was the easy part and I thought that 50 shades of…. would encompass these two subjects nicely!
I use a lot of fresh flowers at work and bring them home whenever I can to photograph for the blog – whilst still alive and throughout the whole process of decay. I love recording the whole process with their change in form and colour into something equally as beautiful dead as it is alive.
I bought these pale lilac and pink tulips form Grey’s Court (National Trust) in Henley. The gardeners had just bunched them up for sale outside their greenhouses, where volunteers work year round tending to the beautiful walled fruit, vegetable and flower gardens. For anyone even with a passing interest in flowers, the gardens and house are a quintessentially English day out in the countryside!
My children, Evie and Gabriel studiously counted ‘at least’ 50 different shades and colours between the hyacinths and tulips – or so I’ve been ‘reliably’ told !!
How brilliant to be part of Tina’s Vive La Différence – such a great concept that I’ve enjoyed following from the beginning – thanks so much for asking me Tina! xx
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50 shades of Jelly Beans
I was looking forward to someone choosing 50 shades of….. you must understand, when I choose the themes they just appear in my head and I have no pre-conceptions of what I will do with that theme. I only think about it after my guest has chosen.
Walking around plotting this theme I came across a candy store. That made me think of Jelly beans. I remembered seeing a whole section in Selfridges with lots of different colours and flavours. There it was. 50 shades of Jelly beans it is! I actually bought all colours and initially was going to do a 3D version of this. I’m going to be honest, the sheer smell made my stomach turn (apologies to Jelly bean eaters) so I abandoned that idea and decided to create the Jelly bean shapes myself.
I made a drawing and painting of the flower shapes by hand and then worked in photoshop. Here’s the result. I had so many different versions that I drove myself completely crazy. I was fascinated to see how far I can take it and manipulate the image and what would work as a textile or wallpaper. For this purpose here I wanted the Jelly bean shapes to stand out. As a result I will post the whole process on Thursday in a separate post. So, flowers, colours and 50 shades of Jelly beans!
Thank you Caroline. Love having you here on Colourliving. You make flower decay beautiful and sexy! Magic…..
26 Comments
Caroline: so you! One day I want someone to post several styled pictures and ask the readers who the authors are. I bet I recognize yours:-)
Tina: ah, let us see the other versions too, please! Is that what are you going to show on Thursday?
Big hug to both!
Hahaha. I bet you would be able to pick out Caroline’s in no time:-)
Your wish is my command. No, seriously, fancied sharing the design process with everyone.
Thanks Gudy, hope you’re well x
Both images are very beautiful, as always.
Tina, I laughed when I saw your ‘jelly beans’ as I remember when you were talking about them in Selfridges. I turned to my children, at the time, and said “ooooh Tina says you can now get popcorn flavour jelly beans”, and they haven’t stopped asking for them since!
I too, love nature in decay, Caroline, and find it beautiful.
Thank you both, another enjoyable post.
Hello Alison,
Hahaha, what on earth made me pick Jelly Beans? I really have no idea. I wanted something with food but JB???
I cannot believe the flavours I saw. Popcorn? I mean what on earth can this taste like? Yuk:-))
I loved Caroline’s take on this! x
Super super cool, ladies! Both creations are divine and beautiful in every way. I love buttered popcorn flavored jelly belly jellybeans!!! Beautiful work, both of you!
Big hugs,
Jocelyn xx
Oh no, another jelly beans devotee… shocking:-)
Thanks lovely xx
Oh brilliant girls! Caroline I have always admired your fascination with the decaying flower or plant and I can truly say that you’ve made me appreciate its beauty more and more – a perfect choice. Tina I wondered how you come up with the topics, I thought it might have been over a few vinos one night;-) Beautiful vibrant painting and I look forward seeing the rest of the jelly beans! Have a lovely day you too. Mel xx
A truly perfect choice for Caroline. So delicate and sensitive!
Haha, and what if I tell you I don’t drink? I think I just make myself write 20 themes in 5 minutes, whatever pops into my mind first. Works wonders and shows you that some themes are topical.
Unfortunately, or fortunately for me, I gave away the jelly beans but will show some of them to you in a photograph:-)) NO SMELL!!
Thanks Mel xx
Love both images so much, so different!
I love decaying flowers, I really could stare at them for hours.
And Tina (not a fan of jelly beans one bit) but yours look absolutely stunning!
Can’t wait to read about the process of your pic 🙂
Hello you.
So much nicer to write back now that we;ve met! I LOVE meeting off-line, nothing beats that.
Hope you had a great weekend:-)
Ha. You get me then, right?? Hope you like the process. Do let me know. And I want to see what you made over the weekend and hear all about it.
Will you blog about it??? x
A really great idea for a blog series, Tina! It’s amazing to see how differently a theme can be interpreted. Both beautiful and very creative!
Hello Hollie.
Thank you:-) Glad you enjoy it. Yes, it’s meant to show how the same theme and object can and will be interpreted so differently by everyone.
There’s no right or wrong, just different!
Love the jelly bean image – I had no idea what they would look like but your design is fantastic. My son enjoyed the spare jelly beans too!
Haha. For those of you who read this. I did tell Shona of my vignette and donated the jelly beans to her son. Glad he enjoyed them Shona:-)
Hope you’ll like the process!
Fantastic interpretation in both images. They’re so different, it’s great to see the contrast. Personally (and that’s purely based on my very subjective opinion and taste), I’m probably more drawn to Caroline’s image – the faded colours are just more me. However, I love the graphic aspect of Tina’s work and the way the flowers are drawn is brilliant. And no, I’m not a big Jelly Bean eater either 😉 Fabulous addition to the series. xo
Hello you, soon to be in sexy NYC…
Hahaha, my love, don’t worry, I’m very well aware you’re drawn to Caroline’s image:-))
Thank you, glad you enjoy the graphic aspect. Come back to see the entire process. It will make more sense.
Phew, thought you belonged in the jelly bean camp:-)
Great to see you the other day xx
What a great idea, and what wonderful images, I love the contrast between them. I have always loved seeing the beauty in decaying flowers but have never managed to represent it visually, love what Caroline has done.
Emma
Hello Emma.
Thank you for stopping by. Glad you enjoy the series.
Caroline has become quite the expert in visual representation of decaying flowers. She’s super talented.
Thank you Caroline for taking part and sharing your talent with us. You’re now officially part of the VLD family. x
Hahaha when reading that you chose JB I didn’t understand… Tina & jelly beans? But your non-3D interpretation is way more you 😉 I also love Caroline’s pretty decay. Somehow it looks very British to me. I like looking at “gone flowers” as well, although I can’t stand the weird smells. Very curious about your creative process. See you on Friday!
Hahaha, you are soooo right. Me and jelly beans? Not usually a good combo!
I know what you mean by the weird smell. I think that often comes from the water…
well, take a look, publishing it this morning.
See you tomorrow – finally x
[…] mentioned in my latest Vive la Différence post, I just couldn’t cope with the smell of all these preservatives and E-colours, so abandoned […]
Little late to this but I love both images because they are just so different! Carolines image of the decaying flowers is just perfect and I echo the other readers that say that it really is clear representation of her aesthetic, and as for your jellybeans Tina, I loved hearing about the process you went through when we met at the textiles exhibit and love your interpretation!
Hahaha, of course I was sharing that day:-)) Thanks, glad you like it! x
Cool! Really different takes on the topic! I think this depicts the most dramatic difference to me in all the VLD’s so far. As usual, I love both versions. Caroline’s makes me feel calm, makes me feel like making slow swaying motions with my arms. Tina’s excites the heck out of me, make me want to skip down the street! Great job ladies, totally enjoyed this.
Xx.
Sometimes I don’t want there to be a complete difference and sometimes it’s appropriate. This time it was appropriate.
Nice analogies of the mood each Vignette creates in you. Thanks Holly xx