Essence // Rose of Sharon + Passionflower
Energy Work with Passion Flower:
Crown - chakra opening that connect us to our Higher Selves + The Divine
Enhances clairvoyance + channeling messages from Spirit Guides
Helps dispel emotional confusion relating to these states of higher awareness so that the understandings received can be more easily assimilated + integrated into everyday life.
UPDATE: You can now find my favorites from this series in the Print Shop as Digital Downloads.
Do you believe plants speak to you? I do. I can pinpoint different times in my life when a plant has spoken to me. I’ll see it everywhere- even in places where I’ve never seen it before. I’m gravitated towards it. I think about using it in different ways. I research the medicine for each plant, and figure out a new way to use it. Maybe it’s in a skincare formula. Maybe it’s a new way to flavor my food. Either way, the plant speaks to me.
The Passion Flower first spoke to me a few years ago when we moved into our home. I somehow stumbled on the vine, intrigued by it’s unique tropical look. I was even more intrigued when I discovered it could grow here, in Virginia. I picked up a pack of seeds, planted it along my fence, and then…NOTHING. Nothing happened that first growing season. But the next season, the vine started to grow. a little bit of the vine started wrapping around the fence, but that was it. No flowers, nothing. I figured it was a bust. It was just a myth this amazingly beautiful, unique plant would grow in Virginia. But this year everything changed. I had hundreds of flower buds on my vines! My husband and son probably thought I was going crazy by the happy dance I was doing when I discovered the sweet, florally, tropical smelling flower buds. And then- they bloomed! Oh my word how beautiful where they!
Unfortunately, this certain type of plant doesn’t produce any fruit after bloom but that’s ok, the beautiful flowers are worthy all in their own right.
I started doing some research on the Passion Flower. Looking up their spiritual meaning, discovering how to make a flower essence from the blooms.
I decided to use this Mother Essence as a base for the DIY Developer for this collection.
After snipping off a few long pieces of vine, I rolled the vines into the film strip and secured it with a rubber band.
The wild ink of the Rose of Sharon. A beautiful blue/green
The Rose of Sharon is another plant that grows well in my area that also has tropical looking flowers, similar to a hibiscus, I think (thought I don’t think they are related). I made a wild ink from boiling down the flowers in water, and when dry, it made a beautiful blue/green color. I soaked the film in this wild ink for 1 day, and then let it dry in the sun for 2 days. I cut the film strip into 3 smaller, workable strips before developing.
Rose of Sharon
The “Flower of Joy”
Restore intuition + purity of the heart
Connects us to Consciousness energy
Uplifting in times of sadness + exhaustion
Eases the burdens of responsibility + feelings of deep fatigue.
Developer:
I mixed my DIY Developer with Flying Embers Kombucha (see previous alternative processing post for recipe) w/ 1/2 of the Mother Essence.
Developed for 5 min- note*the film strip turned very black
Fixed for 15 min with my homemade Fixer Solution
I decided not to use developer on one of the strips b/c I wanted to see if it made a difference. So one strip was only fixed for 25min and the colors came out similar as the strips I used the developer on, which leads me to believe, the developer may not be necessary for this type of processing.
Once it was dry, I scanned the film, turned the negatives into positives and were blown away by the results! See for yourself:
This is a small sampling of what came out on the roll. Let me know what you think! I’ll be adding my favorites to the Print Shop soon. Tell me- is there one that resonates with you the most?
