Art Imitating Nature…

As I mentioned recently we have had windy, rainy weather and that means a lot of palm fronds have sailed to the ground all over town. This reminded me to share the little art quilt below. A while ago I was experimenting with a piece of my hand painted fabric that had been treated with Terial Magic Spray Stabilizer and then put through a pasta machine. The experiment was a failure but I decided rather than waste the fabric I would try to make a small art quilt using it. Once I started working with the fabric I kept thinking it reminds me of something but I couldn’t put my finger on it… until my Mister and I were walking at the bay. There I saw a piece of fallen palm frond and as soon as I saw it I said out loud “That’s it!” When the strands of fiber separate they make thinner, thread like strands running perpendicular and that is exactly what I got when I pulled the fabric apart.

palm tree fiber
wind dancers

The tentative title is The Wind Dancers…Notice I hand embroidered tiny leaves, ballet shoes, and then French knots on a skirt of silk. So much fun! It makes me think of a forest of trees swaying in the wind.

wind dancers detail
The Wind Dancers – detail

Sometimes failures bring on happy endings… Have you resurrected what you thought was a failed piece only to rework it into a happy ending?

2 thoughts on “Art Imitating Nature…

  1. Joanna

    I’m trying to wrap my head around the pasta machine part of your post. Did you want to shred the fabric? What was your original intent? I often find that cutting up a failed project leads to something else, but when it’s already cut up that option isn’t available.

  2. Ann Scott Post author

    I have been quilling fabric and I learned that some people were using their pasta machine to make paper strips so I thought I would give it a try with my stiffened fabric. Needless to say it didn’t work. So I’m back to my two ruler strip cutting technique for now. I refuse to use a die cutting machine and I haven’t seen 1/8 inch cutters anyway.

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