I’ve been a follower of Alice Fox, a UK based artist who works with nature. In her new book, Wild Textiles, she showed an example of a leaf quilt, which intrigued me. I wanted to try this out. On Nov 1, I collected fallen poplar leaves at my workplace. They were bright yellow and so beautiful. I stitched some together using embroidery thread. I put this on hold so I could go down to do some caregiving work for my parents. I put the leaves in a plastic bag with a wet paper towel and put them in the refrigerator.
When I returned I got covid, so I focused on recovering. Today on Dec 10, I resumed the stitching. While the leaves lost their bright yellow colors and turned to brown, they maintained their firmness, so I continued stitching the brown leaves even though there are still freshly fallen yellow leaves around.
I know these leaves produce beautiful leaf skeletons, so I am looking forward to seeing what they look like after they have disintegrated with time and water.
