playing with pam's pond palm frond

...oops, I forgot another "nude stitches" transformation....another glass piece, mounted on some oddly pleated copper colored fabric, all mounted on some hand dyed (not by me) fabric and wrapped around a canvas covered frame...



Now let's move back to pam's pond palm frond from the front yard (photo in August 6th post). I used the photo in a sunprinting-on-fabric experiment. I made an abstract block design based on a section of the photo, photocopied it, cut out two copies, and attached them to some white linen fabric. Then I sprayed the linen with water, painted it with Setacolor transparent turquoise, and set it in the sun. Magic! The result:





Then, based on my abstract block design, I made a fused glass piece:




...and I auditioned the piece on the linen...


Hmm. The fabric block areas looked lonely and weak. I needed another go-round on the design and the color intensity. I didn't want to just repeat the block motif in every corner, so I decided to go forage. What luck! I found the perfect solution -- a real live frond, possibly the one in the photo. I harvested it for art's sake.

After placing the frond on a new piece of white linen, I set up for another Setacolor moment. I attached two more blocks in opposite corners...



...and let the sun do its magical work...


Yesssssssssssss! The blocks are more distinct, and the frond took on an ethereal quality. I then placed the linen on batting and a backing piece and stitched around the fronds and the lines of the blocks with copper metallic thread...


I auditioned the fused glass on the piece, but it got lost in the turquoise. I frayed the edges of a piece of the white linen, and placed the glass on that. Another yessssssssssssssssssssss!


The edges were then bound and the fused glass was attached with fishing line. The finished piece was mounted on plexiglass...

Ta da!