week 27--tree

So I'd thought of doing a family tree; I have been cleaning out my mom's house and finding boxes upon boxes of photographs. (Who are these people?!?) Then I considered doing the classic 'Tree of Life', a design I've always liked. But I'd found a piece of organdy (or is it organza? I could never remember the difference) and wanted to use its sheerness in some way. After attempting a few different ideas (felting, cutouts), I decided to simply draw a tree on it then layer it over another fabric to subtly show through. I had some Czech glass leaf-shaped beads so sewed them on. They're not quite to scale with the presumed size of the tree, but that's okay. The tree reminds me of the London Planes in the neighborhood, what we've called "bumpy trees" since Joe was a little guy. (They're a hybrid of Sycamore and something else, developed for London because the heavy pollutants in the air--London fog was actually London smog--wouldn't affect the trees as much with their contantly peeling bark. So they became popular as a city landscaping tree. There's your science/history lesson for the day.)

Pigma pen on organdy (I just looked it up--'dy is cotton or nylon, 'za is silk, poly, or rayon; what an education today!) over cotton batik. Decorative cording machine-stitched around edges, hand-beaded.