Stitched Red Leaf Sun Square

Stitched Red Leaf Sun Square, originally uploaded by escher (waiting no longer).

I spent all day making what I did yesterday and as I didn't have a watch with me I was surprised to find it was 6.30pm by the time I got home. I quickly showered, loaded and processed my photos, wrote two accompanying stories, cooked dinner and finally sat down and relaxed an hour later.

Saturday is my normal "land art day" but as I had the day off yesterday I took full advantage. My partner works Saturdays so I was looking forward to doing some more sculpturing today.

My cat is a very good alarm clock and at 7am without fail she announces her presence with a trill miaow. The trouble is she won't have anyone else feed her, she just ignores my partner so I have to get up to do it. No lie-ins for me! I felt very bleary eyed and not at all in a fit state to do some art. So instead of getting at it I had some brekkie, went to the supermarket and then came home and went back to bed! I'll bet proper, dedicated artists would never do that!

I went to the park once I was properly all snoozed out and found some lovely red and yellow variegated leaves that had dropped to the floor. I don't know their variety but they had a similar vein structure to maple leaves. The park attendants were doing their rounds clearing the bins in their green buggy. They saw me collecting leaves and pulled up and stared at me scowling. I just carried on and eventually they drove away. They can't have thought I really was up to much or perhaps they would have actually said something?!

Although there have been quite a few leaves on the ground for a few weeks, this morning was the first time I saw some beech and birch trees actively shedding in the light early morning breeze. It must be the cooler night time temperatures we have had accompanying this gorgeous clear weather.

I took the leaves back to the place where I was yesterday and found the lightning leaves sculpture 100% intact apart from an artistic slug which had dawbed silvery graffiti across it. I wonder if anyone will come across it? It is very near to a well travelled path but far enough away that perhaps no-one except sheep will pass that way. I hope someone does and they are intrigued as to how it came to be there. I know I would be if I came across such a thing.

To highlight the vein structure I cut out squares and stitched them together and then I had to think of a way of displaying as the leaves which were very delicate and would tear under their own weight if not well supported. So I constructed a square frame and pinned everything together with thorns. Next job was to find a pool of sunlight and somewhere to display it. This was the hardest part of all and took more than an hour of faffing and trying different places. The wind had got up at this point and it was starting to shed thorns meaning each time that it did I had to restitch a section and the leaves got more and holes and tears in them. The clock is always running with leaf sculptures like this. But finally I did get it sorted and hung it from a branch and the sunlight caught it just right.

Time for a beer and barbecued chicken now!