When
Caroline chose trees as the theme for
September's challenge I was thrilled! I have been in awe of trees for a very long time. I have taken countless photos and have used trees as inspiration in my jewelry and fiber art for several years.
It wasn't until I sat down to make some jewelry for the challenge that I realized just how many items I had already created using trees/leaves as inspiration.
After completing the tree challenge I wanted to do another blog post so I could share the numerous pieces that I have created over the past 8-10 years with trees as my inspiration.
As you will see trees can be depicted in any medium. They lend themselves to hand stitching, machine stitching, creating leaves from copper, creating trees from wire, stamping in clay, stamping on fabric...The opportunity to use trees as inspiration in your art is endless!
A few pieces of jewelry using leaves-
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| Brass Etched Leaf, Agate & Acorn Necklace |
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| Hand Forged Copper Leaf & African Turquoise Necklace |
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| Rustic Raku Leaf With Tibetan Agate & Glass Beads |
And a beaded cabochon that looks as though you are peaking through hanging limbs at a misty pond.
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| Bead Embroidered Jasper Necklace Hanging From An Antler |
You can etch copper with trees and encase in resin.
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| Etched Copper In Metal Bezel With Resin |
Trees can be embroidered by hand and beaded.
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| Detail Of Crazy Quilt |
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| Fiber Collage With Ribbon/Embroidered/Beaded Tree |
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| Felted Fiber Collage With Beaded Tree |
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| Photo Printed On Fabric With Multiple Layers of Embroidery & Beads |
Trees can be machine embroidered and embellished with jewelry type elements. These are close-ups of art quilts with trees as the central element.
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| "Keeper of the Woods' Art Quilt |
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| "Can't See the Forest for the Trees' Art Quilt |
You can use rubber leaf stamps to print on fabric or paper.
I used the same hand-carved stamp for both of these pieces.
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| "Spring Revival" Art Quilt |
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| "Central Park Player" Mixed Media Collage |
Or you can actually use leaves to paint and print onto fabrics. After I printed with the leaf I encased the painted leaf between fabric and tuille then edge-stitched it. I attached the leaf on the printed fabric to create more dimension.
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| Fiber/Mixed Media Mini Quilt |
And again, I used a real leaf in a mixed media collage below.
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| "Be Who You Are" Mixed Media Collage |
Leaves can be used as a resist for sun printing with setacolor paints as in the photos below. The first photo also has leaves stenciled on the fabric. And the second photo has a screenprinted dandelion.
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| Dyed, Sun Printed, Stenciled, Screen Printed |
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| Dyed, Sun Printed, Screen Printed, Machine Embroidered & Beaded |
These trees were screenprinted onto hand dyed silk with discharge dyes and are just waiting for me to do something with them!
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| Dyed Dupioni Silk Screen Printed With Discharge Dyes |
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| Dyed Dupioni Silk Screen Printed with Discharge Dyes |
Leaves can be used to impress into clay. The one below is raku.
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| Elephant Ear Leaf Plate |
The ones below were rubbed with oxides then high fired glazes applied on stoneware.
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| Hosta Leaf Plate |
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| Hydrangea Leaf Plate |
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| Maple Leaf Plate With Leaf Handles (I forgot what leaves I used?) |
Believe it or not, there are still other ways I have used trees. I mentioned all the photos I've taken- well, they could possibly be a whole series of blog posts by themselves so I will stop here.
Hopefully, you will be inspired by trees in ways you had never considered before. Maybe we will revisit the tree theme here again in the future. If you didn't get a chance to see all the
participant's tree inspired pieces please do so. They were fabulous!
Looking forward to
October's component of the month-sugar skulls.
