Tree of life

A tree of life was one of the designs I looked at as part of my mythology investifations in the work I was doing as a member of Metaphor textile group. When we agreed the exhibition that will run in March this year the theme of make do and mend was decided upon.

I’ve chosen to re-use my earlier tree of life design (sketchbook page above) and to work in various techniques to develop it further plus I’m trying to do the whole thing using just my stash or items bought from other peoples’ stash, nothing completely new if I can help it.

When a member of the group wanted to de-stash she brought some mulberry bark along for sale and I was tempted, very tempted. It’s so beautiful and shiny and once you’ve soaked it in water for a while you can manipualte it. There was a small piece which had become detached from the rest and I could visualise it split and manipulated into a tree shape.

I really loved the way this looked and I wondered what it would look like if I added some silk fibres behind the tree to kind of fill it our a bit more.

Having covered it with BFL and mulberry silk fibres I then covered the whole item in 2 layers of BFL wool in an oval shape.

There’s something about the shining white tree on a natural white background that really appeals to me but I am worrying that the tree itself isn’t obvious enough. I may have to play with the background colour a little more.