Pencil drawing of an hourglass with two shaded roses, thorny vines and leaves, with a scrolled ornament in the top right corner, shown as a black and grey tattoo design.

Enlarged with AI from a smaller original

Hourglass with roses and thorny vines pencil design

Realism · Black and grey · Flash

The drawing shows an hourglass with a rose in the upper bulb and another in the lower bulb, both formed by the glass shape. Thorny stems and leaves wrap around the hourglass frame, and an ornate scrollwork panel sits in the top right corner. The work uses soft graphite shading with fine hatching and strong tonal contrast, and the composition is centred on the hourglass with the scroll as a secondary element.

Realism Botanical Hourglass Rose Thorn Vine Leaves Scroll Ornament

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A story inspired by this tattoo · fiction

Dear Nell, the rose in the top bulb has finally opened, the way you said it would once the frost let go of the lean-to. I know you think I fuss over that old hourglass, but Mr Pryce left it to the potting shed with a note that said only keep the roses watered, and so I have. The thorns have gone further than either of us planned. They climbed the frame in March and nobody could say why, least of all the glazier, who came to fix the broken pane and went off swearing he'd been scratched through his coat.

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The bottom rose is the one I worry over. It sits in the sand where the light never reaches, and its petals have gone grey at the edges like the pencil sketches Mr Pryce used to keep in his drawer. I tried to tip the glass the way he did on Sunday evenings, but the sand would not run. It only settled a little deeper, as if it had decided to stay put and wait for someone else to turn it over.

Yesterday I found a scroll of curled iron sitting in the corner by the door, the same curl as the carved panel on the cabinet in the parlour. I think he meant it for the top corner of the frame and never got round to fixing it there. I've set it on the bench beside the watering can. Come on Saturday if you can and bring the good secateurs. We will cut back the vines together, and then we will decide which of us gets to turn the glass.

Yours in muddy boots, Ada