'Seed Bank'

The obvious choice for my seeds challenge was the Sycamore. We have an avenue of Sycamore and Ash trees outside our house and the seedlings from the Sycamore are the bane of my life. I'm constantly pulling them up, even between the bricks on the drive.

I'm painting this tale of woe so you understand the craziness here over the past month, not only by me but my husband as well, as we search for the little helicopters and the joy of being handed one. At this time of the year they are quite brittle, but covered in gel medium I was able to print with them and enclose them in organza.

I felt quite sad when I finished my piece and had to clear away my finds, so much so I trapped some of them between bubble wrap, more craziness.

Here are some pages from my sketch book.

Sycamore leaves glues to the page

Printing with a leaf, seeds trapped under organza

Lino cut print

Torn paper seeds, lino print seeds, paper sample

Finished piece  'Seed Bank'

Detail of layered helicopters

I used a variety of mixed media for the helicopters, painted bondaweb, organza cut using a soldering iron, purchased hand made paper and used tea bags which I waxed to bring our the colour.

The background was constructed with raw edge appliqué and free machine quilting, using the mono printed fabric we sampled at our last meeting and adding leaf and lino cut printing.

Now, onto the next challenge.........Dreams.

Bye for now

Sue