Tuesday, October 25, 2016

Leaf Stitching

More leaf stitching
while watching Billy Bob Thornton
and William Hurt
in the first season of Goliath.

magnolia leaf,
stitched and rolled

hibiscus--
the vintage tatting thread was too stiff

Persian shield,
turned from lovely purple
to almost black

 birch, 
less than 2 inches
without the stem.

More experimenting with threads and yarn. 
 More leaves being pressed under stacks of books.  

Inspirations:

Francoise mentioned Alice Fox 
in a comment on my last post,
and Fox's work is one of the inspirations 
for this new project.

Another is Suzanne Bauer,
who (who knows how)
manages to crochet on leaves!

also does beautiful work!

I would love to have some of the gorgeous fall leaves
in all of their glory,
but colors are still rare around here.

Each fall, the words from Shelley's 
echo in my thoughts--
especially his description 
of autumn leaves as
"yellow and black and pale and hectic red."

source

I'm also playing with birch bark.
Years ago, I stitched birch bark for postcards,
but I can't locate the pictures.

When I made Augustus, I used birch bark for his book. 

I machine stitched the birch bark and
added in hyacinth bean pods 
and faded day lily blooms.
Still holding up after 5 1/2 years,
although Augustus met some serious damage 
from the evil Triad of felines
and has gone to live with Amelia
to avoid the bad cats.

There is something soothing about working with natural materials.   

10 comments:

  1. Lovely! You've inspired me to venture outside today to pick up a few things from the forest to stitch or play with. ;)

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    1. Thanks! It is always nice to venture outside in the fall, isn't it? The forest is great place for finding stuff to play with. :)

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  2. The magnolia leaf looks like a rather beautiful archer's wristguard...!

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    1. I thought it looked like a cuff of some sort as well. I like archer's wrist-guard better, more adventurous!

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  3. Yes, I was thinking the same thing as Rachel when I saw that Magnolia leaf. It almost looks like leather. You certainly found some very talented stitchers working on leaves. It's an amazing art, isn't it. Not a concept I would ever have dreamed of.
    xx, Carol

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    Replies
    1. :) All three artists seem to be fascinated with a kind of impermanence.

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  4. Love this work, I have long been a fan of Alice Fox but hadn't come across Hilary Fayle before.

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  5. I'm going to have to look into the stones. Richard is a rock nut....picks them up everywhere we go, so it would be fun to do something with them. That magnolia leaf is my favorite. I love that it has such a smooth, leathery look and that your stitches are fun and playful. So much to enjoy in this post!

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    Replies
    1. Thanks, Mary! I've always wanted to make a meditation walk with stones--like this one!
      Several years ago, I did some weaving around a stone and think I'd like to that again. What do you and Richard do with your stones?

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Good to hear from you!