Once I decided to move forward with the use of plaster as the canvas, I looked to my nieces to work with me to create their plant portraits.
We made plaster masks of their faces, and they sorted through and selected plant material and accessory items that they loved or that inspired them in some way. 
I taught them the basic method I’d been using on plaster masks – polymer varnish on both sides and a weight on top of a piece of parchment paper on top of the varnished element.
While they dedicated themselves to the craft, I tidied up loose ends and sometimes got carried away with wiring cottonwood branches and gluing down seedpods.
