Trees of Autumn

Yes, I know it's Spring.  Or at least, in some places it is Spring.  I'm not too sure about around here!!!

But the page I made for Ruth in the Traveling Page swap was of Colorado aspens in the fall.

My inspiration came from a trip to the Colorado mountains I took last fall. The mountain aspens were turning color and seemed to be everywhere! I took tons of photographs and printed one onto silk to use as a background for this piece.

This particular photo was taken on a train ride up to Silverton, CO, but it was actually just a starting point!

 

 

I’ve always thought that drawn thread work makes great trees, so that was the next step.

I used watercolor pencils to give color to the area surrounding the opening and then fused colored cotton to provide more intense color behind hand embroidery.

I can't seem to do one of these pages without adding beads somewhere and with all the leaf shapes available, this page cried out for embellishment!

I happened to have a batik in a perfect autumn color to use for the backing.  There's those beads again - same ones - they dangle from the upper edge.

Ruth has let me know the page arrived safely, so I can finally share this page with everyone.  This page was lots of fun to do.  I tried out several embroidery stitches and had a lovely time cruising through my books & papers to choose the "right" ones.  The open space created by the drawn threads is larger than anything I've done in the past and I was quite pleased with with final effect. 

Now, to get busy on April's page.   The theme is Goddess Within.  I've already got some great ideas!  Well, I think they're great anyway.  Just need to settle on one!