Waiting for bunchberries

I am always looking at leaf textures and considering which ones to use with metal clay, but the leaf I use most often is that of the bunchberry dogwood. The back side has raised veins that recreate the lines of the front, when pressed into fresh soft clay. I guess you could say the bunchberry is my “go to” leaf.

I’ve been looking for bunchberry plants in shady areas on the side of the road. Where are they? I thought they would be out by now, but they are not in their usual spots. Maybe I am looking for them too early in the season. The only leaves to be found, where I usually find bunchberries, are the wild lily of the valley.

 (Pretty little flowers, but the smooth leaf texture = boring.)

In my road side search, today, I remembered to look for old goldenrod stems from last fall. Since making my silver pod bead from the mold of a triple stem gall, I wanted to find a single stem gall to make a mold for single pod beads.

Though they were well-camouflaged in all of the dead grass and sticks on the side of the road, I was able to spot a few.  I may still be waiting for the bunchberry plants to show up, but at least I didn’t have to wait until fall to find these.