20 May 2006

Gumnut Babies

In a discussion on Magnum Opus, an email group for Catholic homeschooling families with four or more children, I compared the picture of one of the particpant's new babies to a gumnut baby.
This led to the question, "What's a gumnut baby?"
We then realised we hadn't shown these cross stitches Lana has made of gumnut babies. You will probably have to click the photo to get more detail. Gumnut babies are the invention of May Gibbs (1877 to 1969). She wrote many works focussing on the Australian flora and fauna and imagined a variety of creatures living within the unique Australian plants. The Big Bad Banksia Men were another example we have mentioned previously.

2 comments:

patternnuts said...

I have never seen or heard of the gumnut babies. I am guessing gumnut is a type of plant?
I especially the like the top 2 (in blue and the brunettes)

DavidofOz said...

Gum nuts are the seed pods of Eucalyptus Trees which are native to Australia (and some have been transplanted to California). Each of the gumnut babies is wearing a hat of varying gum seeds or flowers. The babies are hiding behind gum leaves, the staple diet of Koalas.
When they come into flower in Spring we'll take some photos.