Western Australia's Banksias

by Marylyn
(Melbourne)

Years ago I started using dried Seed Pods and Flower heads to craft what turned out to be a very unique range of Australiana.
The range consisted of...

# Koalas
# Echidnas
# Wombats
# Penguins
# Kangaroos
# Platypus
and of all things...
# A Swagman

All these were made using the banksias from Western Australia as their primary base material.

* Prionotes.
* Bull Banksias
* Serrata
* Baxteri
* Ericafolia
* Septrum and so on

Selling the creations was just the end result, the fun part was finding the right banksia for the creature and where I could get my hands on thousands of them.

Podarama was a fun business back there when I was raising 5 kids because they could all join in the fun, collect, make and sell.
The unique varieties of banksias always amazed me as I was always able to find the exact one I needed! And that went for nuts and seed pods as well.

I remember there was a gum nut that I used to use that was growing on a friends property over in WA with the most enormous opening, this was twisted into a fantastic shape. No two were the same so I turned them into the most incredible wide mouth frog collection. These sold really well!

The wombat pictured above was made using...

* Wooly Banksia(Name?) for the body
* Kurrajong for the ears and nose
* Hakea for the eyes (the pupils were seeds from some pod!)
* Base was part of the Bull Banksia

He was about 7" long and about 5" high, quite impressive!

See what I mean? You usually could find a Banksia etc to fit the bill.

Made lots of friends over there in those days.
They were great days!

Memories

Perhaps someone can identify the actual Banksia used...I would love to know its name.