The Fashion of Nature

Carol here.

Like everyone else in the group, I've been working on the upcoming show in New York.

I chose to incorporate a bit of natures' fashion into my pieces.
I've been working off of the knowledge that nature, just like fashion, dresses herself according to the season.
Her fashionable colors change as well as the way that she clothes herself.

I spend a lot of time observing the fashion show that Mother Nature organizes.
I try to take my creative cues from this show.

Season to season, the colors change.
The emotion changes.
She sheds her autumn foliage for the monochromatic palette of winter.

The fashion of nature sheds light on the nature of fashion.
Meaning that fashion changes with the same cycle as nature.

I created this piece from natural elements - sticks, stones and leaves.
The stitched background is made from real leaves that have been pressed and allowed to disintegrate into tissue paper before laminating them to tea bags and scrim.

You can see the leaf above - it has disintegrated
into the tissue paper that I pressed the leaves on.

I used leaves that I gathered from my home garden
as well as vegetation from the forest near my home.

You might find an herb or two in my fabric...

Petals from garden flowers, especially gardenias and lilies.

You can see the layer of tea bags and scrim on this sample.
I laminated all of it together with acrylic soft gel and matt medium.

I also dipped a couple of the central collage elements into beeswax.

The beeswax makes the tea bag very transparent.

I love the smell!

"Nature's Fashion"

This is a 12" x 12" piece mounted on 1.5" stretcher bars.
Each person in the group of 8 will create a panel the same size.
They will be hung in a grid - like a nine patch - with our signage in the center.

I have created two other pieces of wall art plus a book.

Last April, I helped a friend of mine vend at the Virginia Beach "Art & Soul" retreat.
She had all sorts of vintage items to sell (!) and I was one of the helpers in charge of putting these things out on display (can you believe that she left me there with all that cool stuff?!) (my husband couldn't).
I unpacked a pair of little girls espadrilles.
I immediately saw the potential for a book in this pair of shoes.
Some of the group used women's shoes to create a piece of artwork out of.
I chose to use this well loved pair of shoes for one of my projects.
Here's what I came up with.

"The Sole Book"

"Sole Book"
front view

I spent a lot of time painting, staining, crackling and waxing each page
before adding them to the book

I love the crackle pages.
They look like an old sole (or soul, for that matter).

I used a glaze of acrylic paint to bring out the crackles on painted paper