Getting ready to launch! “Willow Creek Dress” is in the water and anchored down. Here I am weaving willow branches into the frame.
Here is the final dress with fresh branches woven into the willow frame. There was a heat wave while I was making it, making all the cutting and hauling of material sweaty work, with sunburn, scratches, wasp stings (one got caught buzzing under my bandana and stinging my ear!), and snakes to contend with (I encountered so many that I took to singing/whistling as I entered the underbrush to warn them away). Then a wind storm hit the night before the photo shoot, and while the dress survived in tact, the temperature dropped dramatically from over 100 degrees to around 65 when it was time to get in the water. It was chilly, but fun, and I was so happy to be completing the project that I didn’t mind goose bumps and shaking a little in the cold.
This is the sheltered location I found, in a little inlet in the creek. The current was too strong for my anchors everywhere else. Even here, I had to bury the anchors in the sandbar under the dress to hold it in place for the three days it took me to work on it.