Eighth Set of Pieces for Exhibition

We have a small grove of kowhai trees just out from our bedroom. They are close to coming into flower, then we will have tuis drinking of the nectar. I have done a set of kowhai which covers the 3 cycles.

First the leaf. When you look at the macro shot of a leaf there is a myriad of veins. I have used the flour resist fabric from an earlier post, then painted the leaves on and stitched each leaf fairly heavily.

Next is the flower. I have used actual leaves and then collaged the fabric of the flower. This technique used here is encaustic - encased in beeswax. I 'painted' melted beeswax over the leaves and fabric, then used a warm iron and baking paper to ease out the lumps of wax.
It smells beautiful!

Lastly are the seed pods. These droop for quite a few months and the seeds are like small yellow peas. I have used actual pods here but firstly they were encased in Mod Podge which makes them more flexible. They are then stitched on and I have made seeds from embroidered French knots.






Final view:

I think this might be my favourite set.