Creating a Summer Garden

Pick out some beads and you could have the garden of your dreams. My Summer Symphony mixed media shadow box frame (above) is a unique creation using upcycled beads, fabrics and other materials. It’s also teeming with wildlife, with a dragonfly, butterfly, bee and an ant. Can you spot them?

I have used glass and acrylic beads plus some amethyst chunks along with fabric scraps for the flowers. It’s vibrant and fanciful and best of all you don’t have to tend it.

This is another of my new gardens – When Beads Become Blossoms. You may recognise a few of the beads from the first frame but they have been used in a totally different way as well as being joined by lots of others. This is a packed herbaceous border full of all sorts of blooms. Fabric flowers complete the scene along with a dragonfly and a couple of sneaky snails.

Or if you fancy something exotic how about Persian Paradise (above) or Palace Garden (below). These were inspired by vintage playing cards that are decorated with Persian or Mughal paintings. I have created gardens around the cards, each one totally unique as always. And each one has its own little story. Please visit my shop to read them.

I hope you have enjoyed strolling through these beaded gardens. Any one of them can bring you a breath of summer all year round.

Derrick