Forest with Trees

This fabric, used by Grainline Studio for their Willow dress, rather intrigued me and I thought it would work nicely for one of my stencils.

So I zoomed in and copied some of those trees.

The motif is a straight copy, I am embarrassed to say, but at least the colour scheme and garment are my own. I had an olive green sweatshirt in mind, with black trees and a nice big cowl to keep me warm in July temps that have finally dipped into the single digits early in the morning. Thankfully they go up a bit higher later in the day.

The pattern of the motifs is a departure from my usual rather rigid grid, which makes the result a bit more interesting. You can also see that each stencil print isn’t perfect, as a matter of fact some of the trees look rather clumsy and childish because the ink has leaked a bit under the stencil. I should be using spray-on adhesive, but when you move and re-place the stencil many times to build up a pattern over a whole garment, that isn’t very effective. I use the end of a brush or a chopstick to press the stencil down tightly to the fabric, but with all those fiddly little bits where the branches join the trunks that doesn’t always work either. Plus I get impatient and just slap on the ink. The solution would be screen printing, stupid woman, but I am still prevaricating.

The imperfect nature of the prints always frustrates me greatly while I am stencilling, and it isn’t until a garment piece is finished and I take a step back that I can see that the whole is much better than each individual part.

The pattern used (modified) was the Tessuti Mandy boat neck tee and the sewing details are on PatternReview.

Stencilling Notes

• Acetate mixed media stencil, cut with fine point soldering iron
• Thick, stubby pencil brush (Aldi kids art materials)
• Permaset screen printing ink, super cover black, thinned with 5-10% water
• Heat set in dryer 30 mins on high, also ironed
• Not washed yet
• Printed on brushed sweatshirt knit, cotton

Linked to Me Made Mittwoch.

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The Things we do in Lockdown…

Sticks have a magic attraction, and not only for little boys. I have been so much more sensitive to the beauty of nature since a daily walk is pretty much the only outing to be had. Many of our gum trees have such gorgeous rough-hewn trunks and twisted branches, with a slew of subtle colours all blending into each other as you follow along with your eyes.

Driftwood can be magical. I have been gathering bits from around our bay, drying them out before they get washed away again. Nothing as spectacular as this, unfortunately. Wouldn’t I just love this in my garden, but it looks so much better in its natural environment.

And there are sticks everywhere on my walks, just begging to be picked up as they tickle my creative imagination. I have come across sailboats and mythical creatures are all over the internet, made from driftwood and other materials supplied absolutely free by Mother Nature.

Nothing adds interest to a walk like looking out for beautiful bits of something that could be the start of a fun project.

Not that I am anything but a complete beginner at making a sculpture, with pretty much non-existent skills. But I do like sculptures and have played with the idea of putting together cast-off bits of ironmongery to make some weird Mad Max creation.

But sticks are better! Not nearly as heavy, easier to come by and no welding skills required, which is fortunate as I have none.

So here it is, my first attempt, driftwood and other sticks, held together with linen thread. You can tell that I love minimalism, can’t you?

It fills an empty space above our stairs very nicely, where two lonely hooks were left behind when the previous owner of the house moved out. We would have had a terrible time to put a picture there as it is a long way up from where you stand on the stairs. I only wish I had thought of some way to hide the hooks, but they sort of blend in, and I must say that Mr Rivergum did a sterling job of placing two bits of wire just at the right distance to latch neatly onto the hooks. A prince amongst men, what can I say!

Not bad for a first attempt, even if I say so myself. But where it is with all that white around it, a bit more ‘presence’ would be good. So I might add some more sticks or other elements to it down the track to make it look less whispy and delicate.

Maybe. It will do for now. 🙂