A few months ago, I started my second 100 Day Project! This year’s project was heavily inspired by the cactus garden at the home Rich and I bought earlier this year in Joshua Tree. As I walked through the garden, I realized how many varieties of cacti there are and I wished I knew their names.
So, each day I researched various cacti common names and would sit down to do a watercolor and ink painting of each. I’ve shared these paintings each day through Instagram, but when Blurb Books reached out to create a book, I knew it would be incredibly satisfying to see my cacti paintings as a collection. I had collected vintage field guides throughout the project, so I decided to create my very own Field Guide to Cacti. I gathered up my favorite paintings and created spreads with the Common Name, Scientific Name, and a personal observation of each cactus.
I used Blurb’s Adobe Indesign plug-in to design the book, which made it so I could customize every last detail. As a designer, this was key. Blurb sent a swatch kit of available papers as well (which you can see in the photo above). I ended up choosing the ProLine UnCoated photo paper which has a raw matte finish that reminded me of watercolor paper. The paper is incredibly smooth and printed the cacti colors beautifully. The book has a dust jacket, and underneath that is the most beautiful oatmeal linen. I’m so excited about how this photobook turned out! (check out a little hyper-lapse of the full book below)
“RED BARREL CACTUS
These blend well with their desert surroundings. Well, until they bloom bright yellow that is.”
Blurb now has my wheels spinning thinking about other types of books to create… thinking of printing some illustrated desert guides to Joshua Tree next!
Thank you to Blurb Books for sponsoring this post.
Are these field guides available for purchase? Love it!