As of 2021, I started working on translating games from English to Hungarian. The following is a list of my video game translations that have been added to the official games.
Game website | Game store page | Credits
Game website | Game store page | Credits
Hello and welcome to my latest blog series. Recently, I started to work on drying flowers and I’ve decided to document my results.
After my previous, quite spectacular, failure of pressing flowers, I decided to try a new method now. Hanging! … It appears whatever I do horror slowly seeps its way into it. Nonetheless, let’s get to it!
Hanging flowers upside down to dry them is a simple and quite old way of creating decorations. I have seen roses dried this way most often but I know instances when other flowers were used. So first, I needed to get a few specimens.
I chose two. The first one was lavender since it is often dried like this and I wondered how much of its aroma it would retain. As always, I am unsure of the exact species but I think it is Lavandula angustifolia.
The second was a more exotic pick, garden nasturtium. It has large petals and I wanted to test how well they could be preserved. This time the identification was much easier since the flower’s binomial name (the full scientific Latin name of the plant) was displayed on the pack of seed they were grown from. Tropaeolum majus.
I cut both of the flowers with a longer stem and with a few pairs of leaves in the case of the lavender. This was to mimic the looks of cut flowers and also to give me space to tie a cord around them. I can also cut a part off of the stem this way if the knot ends up damaging it. Nonetheless, I have chosen some soft yarn to tie onto the flowers to minimize the strain on them.
Now, I just needed something to hang the flowers from… or someone. With that, let me introduce one of my most dedicated assistants, who is in dire need of a name.
After setting everything up, it was time to wait. Still, I kept an eye on what happened. In the case of the lavender, I was fairly certain that things would go at least decently well. The flowers of lavender are pointed upwards and they are positioned close. My theory was that hanging the plant upside down would allow the pull of gravity to help preserve this form.
The garden nasturtium has entirely different proportions, however. It has large petals that are only connected to the rest of the plant with a narrow part. I worried that by letting it hung upside down the petals wouldn’t have enough structure to retain their position and gravity would pull them downward. Essentially, closing the flower. To counter this, I came up with the idea to change its position in cycles. So it would be hung upside down for half of a day and then right side up for the other half part.
Following this plan, things seemed to go well but, even though the flower did retain some of its structure, it crumbled up as it dried. I do believe, the lesson to be learned here is that some drying methods work for specific plants, and this flower requires another technique.
I do think that it is worth noting, however, that after I concluded the test, I placed the flower in a plastic box. A few days later, I noticed that it dried into a zig zap shape. I don’t know the reason behind it, but I do find it to be interesting.
On the other hand -of my assistant- the lavender was a success. I kept it hanging without disturbing it much and it retained most of its color and a faint aroma. A few small bits fell off of it during the drying but the overall look remained. It is one of the first pieces to become part of the collection.
Still, I was wondering why the lavender has dried so nicely while the nasturtium has lost its form. I am far from an expert in the field of botany so I can not say for certain. Though I did come up with a theory.
Obviously, there are a lot of differences between the two plants. The flowers of the nasturtium are much larger than of the lavender. This can be one of the reasons why the former morphed more as it desiccated than the latter.
Still, the observation is the same. It appears that the petals of the garden nasturtium crumbled up while the petals of the lavender did not. Why? The answer I believe is: because they did. Let me explain it.
The petals of the garden nasturtium are large and the change in their shape is more apparent. The petals of the lavender also dried up but it is much more difficult to notice it. So much so that without taking a closer look, it is difficult to even see where they are. The trick, and the reason why this particular plant looks good dried, is actually hidden in the structure of its flower.
But first, take a look at some floral science. The flower of a plant has many parts. Of them, the most noticeable perhaps is the (usually colorful) petals. They are supported by and underneath them are located the (usually green) sepals. They form the calyx, the bottom part of the flower.
The lavender has quite small purple (or lavender colored) petals but as they are drying they become hard to see. But then what do we see as purple flowers on the dried plant? The sepals of the lavender are elongated and the top part of them is purple. The calyx retains its structure and appears as most of the ‘flower’ at the end.
At least, that is my theory. If anyone has any extra information or thinks that my theory is wrong and can correct it, feel free to leave a comment. I had a lot of fun doing research for this blog post. I also learned some new, interesting words that I can add to my dictionary.
Thank you for reading this post! I hope you will have a brilliant day!
Hello and welcome to my latest blog series. Recently, I started to work on drying flowers and I’ve decided to document my results.
Given that I hardly know anything about the process of making dry flowers, I feel moderately certain that my attempts will be littered with mistakes and mild to complete failures, but I think I will be able to learn a lot from it and it will prove to be quite a fun adventure. The goal of this series is multifold. I want to share my findings so others can learn from them but show the beauty of this craft art and prove that anyone can try something like this.
So a few weeks ago I started to gather everything I would need and began to test different setups with different plants. This was one of the first. The method I chose was the old-school pressing, though I used a piece of perhaps slightly more modern equipment. The press (which I will show in more detail in a future entry) consists of two wooden boards that can be fastened together with four bolts. The pressure can be finetuned with wingnuts that sit atop washers to protect the wood underneath.
I collected a flower with a short stem and a leaf from a shrub that I tried to identify later. I believe it is a white flower version of bush cinquefoil (Dasiphora fruticosa) but I am not sure.
I placed the plant between two sheets of paper towel to absorb the water and put a sheet of baking paper on both outer sides to protect the wood. Then it was ready to be put in the press. I tightened the nuts after a few hours and waited for results.
Now, everything seemed to be just fine and logical. The mistake was, as always is, hidden in the details. More specifically in the paper towel that I used. That had a design pressed into its texture.
That is not a big deal if you want to wipe off something from the kitchen counter but drying flowers with fragile petals can have some interesting outcomes.
When I opened the press I was welcomed with a surprise. Let me introduce you to the paper towel designed flower.
Even though I certainly failed at preserving the natural appearance of the flower, I quite like how it has turned out. For my next test, a smoother kind of paper will be needed but I think this fun experiment is worth noting. Maybe, one day I will use this technique to make dried flowers with some specifically designed imprints.
That is it for today. If you liked this post, please join me on my adventure of making dried flowers. Thank you for reading! Have a great day!