Plants as textiles

On a trip to the Adelaide Botanic Gardens, I was fascinated by this coiled up fern in the Bicentennial Conservatory.  I only saw it because a large group of students came walking along the raised boardwalk where I was trying to photograph a turtle in the pond below; to wait until they had gone past, I walked to the other side of the boardwalk and looked at the tall ferns, and was captivated by the texture on this; it reminds me so much of rope or twine or yarn, plaited or knotted, and rolled up inside a strip of polar fleece!

coiled up fern

©Christine Linton

Inspiration from nature

Looking at textiles and papers depicting nature.  I found some stunning work on Inga Hunter's website showing work in textiles, hand-made paper and mixed media.  The link here showing this page is evocative of exactly what she aimed for, the accumulation in gutters and hollows of leaves, twigs and debris; it is from her Blue Mountain landscapes.  

My own Australian landscape comes from a mixed media panel I made in which I used applique to make a rainforest background.  Using ribbons in greens and purples, I then crisscrossed them with uneven strips of various scrap fabrics to disguise any straight edges, cut out palm trees from a printed fabric, covered it in tulle to add a hazy effect, used a brown textured fabric in the foreground for a tree trunk, some green fibre stuff for a climber, free-machined in shades of greens ..... had great fun making it, and have always been pleased with the result.

Australian rainforest - applique