I have a passion for trees but especially during the winter. Once all the leaves have fallen, the bare branches reminds me of nature's lacework.
I'm always trying to find away to re-create trees using fibre, textiles and stitch. To begin with I needed to create the background. First, by using a piece of cotton lawn, watered down acrylic paints, and a paintbrush and then machine stitching after the fabric dried. Once the background was complete, it was time to create each of the elements such as trees, brambles, and evergreens. First question was, "how can I create a dimensional large tree"? So an idea came to mind and the "What if" as I started to experiment with watered down matte medium, strips of fabric on a plastic sheet. So far so good. During the drying time, now it was time to figure out how to replicate the brambles, as I already know how to create the evergreens. Thinking of colour and texture of the brambles while rifling through my stash I found some Lutrador. Maybe this would work? I pulled out my inks and painted the Lutrador. Next I heated it with a heat gun, and as the Lutrador melted the texture appeared which gave me the crumbly dead leaf effect I was looking for. Oh I was so excited! Something was missing, so using hand embroidery I added some bramble vines to the leaves. It worked! So, don't be afraid to try anything in your work, you will be amazed what you can achieve!
Did I also want to mention that this piece is larger than what I normally do. As a challenge this was made for a 10" x 20" canvas. I even surprised myself!
So keep on creating! And remember, pull out that creative inner child! I did and I had a blast!
So until next time
Cheers,
Sue