I am not a hand stitcher--usually in too much of a hurry for that. I use my machine for free motion quilting and my embellisher for felting. But in the recent workshop with India Flint we were given some beautiful silk/cotton thread and told to do some stitching in the cloth prior to bundling. We could create pleats or gather up the fabric. I chose to create a couple of spirals that were gathered along with some curved pleats and darts in a piece of flat crepe. I photoshopped the original path of my stitching -- I could still see the needle holes.
I pressed the gathers flat before laying on oak leaves and rose petals along with some thin leaves that turned to mush in the simmering pot. The fabric was bundled and wrapped on a copper spike like one of those below.
Actually the one on the far left is not copper, not sure what the metal is as it is not rusty. Picked these up at an antique shop nearby.
The cloth was simmered for a minimum of 30 minutes, probably longer. Then cooled overnight in the pot and unwrapped the next day. The yellow was unexpected--probably a reaction of the oak leaves and copper together.
Love these spikes!
I'll be posting more pics from the workshop soon.
BTW--visit my friend Elizabeth Adams Marks' lovely blog
2ndhandpaper. She is a paper maker and book artist and teacher who is currently traveling in Cornwall, England. She arranged quite a surprise for me in two blog posts this week when she and her hubby visited Port Isaac which stands in for Portwenn on the PBS show I love--Doc Martin.
Love the blog, Pat. Like the new digs also. Good idea to have a drainfield type floor when rusting. I like your explanation of the composting wit the red cabbage, and I like the outfit you created with the cmposted silk. Good job.
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