01 May 2007

Persimmon bloom



I LOVE persimmons. They grow here in the Bay Area and I just devour them every winter. I've been watching the persimmon tree around the corner lately as it's put out new baby leaves.

Today I noticed that it's blooming. Here's a bloom I picked. (Sorry for the blurriness - I don't have an adequate camera, but that's being resolved as we speak.) The green parts are very stiff and full of cellulose. The yellow parts are very waterlogged and have square edges where they meet the green parts. I realized that the green parts, if the flower develops into fruit, become the stiff, woody green parts on top of a persimmon fruit. I've never seen them bloom before, so I'm really into it.

Of course this relates to our flower-tagging ideas. But I've got a dilemma. I love this flower and I'd love to have 500 of them to do some temporary sculpture. But it's not my tree and if I plucked them all the poor tree would be fruitless this year. Besides, it's not my tree.

I'd like to cast this little guy and make a mold and reproduce it. In wax? Wax. Yes. Yes! I'll make reproductions.

Yes.

Help from anyone who's made molds? It's been forever and a day since I have, and I'd love some guidance.

A

1 comment:

Laurie said...

I've made molds from plaster then cast in concrete. I bet you could make a plaster mold, coat it in vaseline or some such lubricant and get wax replicas of the flower.