The Art of Living Plant Sculptures

Live plant sculptures give any garden a sense of surrealism, bringing interest to areas that would otherwise be quite dull.

The Art of Topiary

Topiary is the art of trimming and pruning plants to create a spcific shape. These plants are usually perennials, which means they will live for several years, sometimes even decades. Plants popularly chosen for topiary art are fast-growing, bushy shrubs that can withstand heavy pruning.

This form of garden art dates back to Roman times in Europe, with popular topiary shapes resembling obelisks. Obelisks were large standing stones that were carved to have the shape of a pointed egg or elongated water drop. This shape is still popular even today. Hedges are a simple form of topiary, as are small trees that are trimmed to be round or square in shape.

Training the plants over a wire frame allows the artist to create a number of shapes, even humanoid figures such as the wizard topiary design, shown below. The base of the wizard’s hat is part of the wire frame and is probably made from wood.

Different types of plants create different effects in a topiary design. In this design of a little girl running, the girl’s hair has been created with a long-leafed plant.

Using plants of differing colors can add interest and appeal. Note how the plants used for the elephants body are a different color from the elephant’s tusks.

Topiary art often takes the form of geometric shapes. Straight lines are not often found in nature, so square, rectangular or triangular topiaries can give a garden a unique geometric appeal, especially when offset by round or oval topiary shapes.

Topiary designs can follow any form that the artist chooses. This spiral design, created by continuously pruning the shrub into a spiral shape, can be an attractive show piece in a garden landscape.

Topiary artworks are a popular attraction in public gardens and garden centers. The shapes and designs are based on the imagination and creativity of the topiary artist. Below are some more pictures of gardens and parks that include plant sculptures in their design.

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The Cheesiest Thing You'll See Today

Artists and sculptors have found a new use for cheese – cheese sculpting. Cheese is an easy material to sculpt in, as it is firm and holds its shape well. 

The art of cheese sculpting is commonly used as a promotional display, for events, sports teams and famous landmarks. Cheez-it, an American brand of crackers, is one company that has produced a number of cheese carving displays to promote their products. The Cheez-it carvings mostly represent famous landmarks, US presidents and other scenes and characters from American history.

The Cheez-It cracker brand carved this orange cheese sculpture of the four American presidents as they are in the giant Mount Rushmore sculpture. They've included a baked crispy cheese cracker in the shape of the American flag to add to the patriotic nature of this promotional art. [source]

This life-sized cheese carving of former US president Abraham Lincoln was sculpted out of three huge blocks of cheese. Cheddar cheese is the cheeese of choice for carving because it if firm and can hold its shape well. [source]

The video above shows another of Cheez-It's promotional cheese-carved art works; a replica of John Trumbull's iconic painting of the signing of the Declaration of Independence, created from a one-ton block of cheese. [youtube]

Cheese can become edible art

To prevent the dairy-based carving from drying out, cheese carvers spray cooking oil on the finished artwork to preserve the cheese. Using cooking oil has the added benefit of giving the sculpture a glossy shine. By using pasteurized cheese, sculptors can be assured that their artworks won’t melt. However, cheese sculptures need to be kept fairly cool, because if they’re left for too long in the blazing hot sun, they will eventually begin to fall apart.

This skillful cheese carving boasts an acoustic guitar sitting among the petals of a delicate cheese flower. The cheese artist had to scoop out the cheese between the flower petals to create the finished art work. The shine is from a glaze of cooking oil. [source]

In England, one block of cheese became a tasty nativity scene for Christmas, depicting the birth of Jesus in edible art. The artist has added lights into the cheesy scene, a daring move considering the heat of the lights will soften and eventually crumble the cheese. [source]

This beautiful bird carving of a pelican perched on a pole is made entirely from tasty cheese. This cheese sculpture was made for a wine company's promotional display. Such promotions are a common use of food art, and it is where many food artists make their living. [source]

Food art that smells and sells

The color and texture of cheese sculptures, along with the tantalizingly cheesy smell, make cheese art pieces a popular attraction when displayed in a store front or on a buffet table. The size of cheese sculptures are limited only by the size of the blocks of cheese that are available. Even so, some cheese sculptures stand in excess of 10ft, an impressive height for a food carving.

In this cheese sculpture, 3D animation legend Shrek holds New York state close to his heart. You can tell from how the sculptor is holding it that this piece of food art is very heavy. [source]

Winnie the Pooh holds a piece of cheese instead of a honey pot in this cute and delicious cheese carving. Both Winnie the Pooh and the Shrek carving about were created by Sarah Kaufman to promote New York cheeses. [source]

In another cheese sculpture by Sarah Kaufman, Santa Claus wishes cheese festival goers a merry Christmas. [source]

Cheese as a claymation clay

Edible cheese sculptures can be a unique gift, or they can be used as a promotional item. They can also have personalized messages carved into the sculpture as a center piece for a celebratory dinner such as on Christmas or a birthday. Because the sculpture is edible, the cheese can be cut up and served with crackers, dips and preserves, but who knows if anyone ever ate one of the dozens of cheese sculptures of Wallace that were made while creating this stop motion animation:

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