Pik-a-poppy
Because this piece consists of relatively delicate elements, it is under glass to prevent damage, which makes taking photos a bit of a challenge. Pik-a-poppy expresses the fragility of poppy petals in stark contrast to their sturdy stems, leaves and seed pods. Apart from the stems, the entire background is painted including the poppies and leaves. The poppy petals are cut from 3 shades of red organza with a heat tool which seals the edges. The painted area gives more depth to the layers of almost translucent petals that are then applied over the top. The stems are made with many layers of machine satin stitch which start off narrow, becoming wider, until a rounded effect is achieved.
Silk carrier rods
As a by-product, silk carrier rods are pretty nifty for textile artists. They form as firm little cylinders around the carrier rods on the equipment used for unreeling the cocoons. They still contain a lot of sericin and can be used to make silk paper. In this project, they were hand dyed, split into thin layers, ironed and laid down with stitch to create the leaves. As the dye spreads unevenly through the layers of the carrier rods, different shades and mottling results, creating more variations.