Badly photoshopped (or technically fireaplaca’d but w/e) ideas/brainstorms for my now empty canvas of a shadowbox (cleaning it out of gross jarred insects was so overdue). Thinking fruitiforms to make most of the space while following a botanical theme. In order with pros/cons of each organizational idea;
Picea (Spruce) Species
Pros- Very easy to acquire said fruitiforms. Very clean and easy to dry.
Cons- Least decorative/interesting, the majority of Picea save for P. abies cones are very small so detract from such a large shadowbox display without adding multiples to balance it out.
Pinus (Pine) Species
Pros- Moderately to very decorative, moderately easy to acquire.
Cons- Very few species acquirable in the locality outside of P. sylvesteris, P. nigra, and P. strobus (last being actually moderately tricky to acquire intact cones of though trees are common) so not a lot of variety for the display. P. strobus cones while decorative are also quite messy. Most Pinus species’ open cones are much too wide to easily fit into the box.
Magnolia Species
Pros- Very variable fruitiforms making for a very unique/exotic display. The rarity of such of a display of species would be worth getting smug about.
Cons- Difficult to acquire (majority only accessible via distant arboretums & botanical gardens). Depending on species the fleshiness of fruitiforms (M. macrophylla in particular) may be very difficult to dry. Seeds which could make the display even prettier both difficult to dry as well as too valuable to leave in a shadowbox when they could be cleaned/sown instead.
Mixed Species
Pros- Can cherry pick for most decorative/dryable species of each group.
Cons- Thematically chaotic/miscellaneous in a negative way. This is a bigger deal to me than it sounds.
Taking a pretty strong lean on having a Magnolia/Pine based display. What do you guys think? Anyone leaning to one of these themes more than others or do any of you have ideas for an entirely different fruitiform/herbaria theme for such a shadowbox?
