Fragments of Nature – seeing with new eyes

The walk around my back yard last week ended up being quite inspiring, which just goes to prove that inspiration can strike at the most unexpected times because I’ve walked around the back yard hundreds of times before and never really “noticed” what I noticed that day.
After collecting small bundles of leaves and sticks and other debris, I took them back to my studio. I don’t generally stitch using real sticks and leaves so I was a little out of my comfort zone. Very often this is a good place to be because it pushes you to think in different ways.
Fragments of Nature
One thing leads to another.
Fragments of Nature
And suddenly small sticks take on a whole new dimension and become a forest of possibilities …
Fragments of Nature
… and bundles of opportunity to create interesting fabric collage.
Fragments of Nature
Working outside of your comfort zone also has other benefits. If you look closely you can see the shapes of several leaves in the center of this piece of hand-dyed fabric. I didn’t notice these at first until I’d cut the fabric, but these are ghost shapes of leaves that I used in a new hand-dyeing process I’m currently experimenting with called Nature Fusion Hand-dyeing.
Fragments of Nature
This method is a fusion of hand-dyeing processes using procion mx dyes together with things of nature such as flowers, leaves and sticks – something new that I’ve been playing with for several months. I currently include a lesson on nature dyeing in my Assemblage Hand-Dyeing Workshop, however I’m also developing a completely separate “Nature Fusion Hand-Dyeing Workshop” using this new technique. I’m quite excited about these experiments because they’re totally different from anything else I’ve seen before and a totally new way to hand-dye fabrics using Procion MX dyes. I’ll have more information about this workshop very soon.