Autumn Fire Colour Wheel

Autumn Fire Colour Wheel, originally uploaded by escher....

My demeanour has been matching the weather. Not bright and sunny but damp and drizzly. I've had a chest infection for a couple of weeks but although I don't feel unwell anymore I am fed up with coughing my guts up.

So I didn't feel much inclined to get up early and go out, I'd been invited to Middlewood to make something at their apple fair but I didn't feel up to it and the Tour of Britain cycle race passed by very close but I couldn't muster the energy to go see that either.

Eventually I did go out and I went hunting for autumn leaves. The Horse Chestnut trees are really on the turn as are the Maples and the Beeches but many have yet to get going.

I've created an autumn circle at this time of year for the past couple but those were all made of leaves from the same tree. This time I wanted to use different leaves from different trees and to involve some old and new techniques.

This was more involved than it might look. Underneath is a woven circular base using dogwood and willow in the style of a woven, circular basket. I've learnt some weaving techniques recently and am started to use them in my art. On top of the weave is a circle of wet, black mud.

In the centre is a leaf colour wheel stitched to a circle of Ash bark. There are sixteen leaf sections, starting from the darkest: Copper Beech, Wych Elm, Beech, Ivy, Lime, Lime, Cherry, Black Poplar, Cherry, Copper Beech, Scarlet Oak, Red Maple, Red Maple, Copper Beech, and Crimson King Maple.

Surrounding the colour wheel is a circle of Black Poplar, another circle of Copper Beech and finally Red Maple leaves. The whole thing is all joined together and supported so it can be picked up as one object.

I had to tone down the saturation a little bit in these pictures as the colours look unbelievably bright and almost unnatural. It is quite incongruous to see such strong colours of nature against a drab background and the eyes and brain almost can't cope. If you saw the unaltered original you'd think that I had overdone the saturation!

Anyway I am not feeling overly humourous or energetic so I will sign off with one thing that did make me laugh out loud earlier.

You know how they say that owners start to look like their dogs? Well as I was driving down the lane, on my way home, I was greeted by a car coming the other way with three 'people' sat three abreast in the front. In the middle was a doggy that looked just like this. In the drivers seat there was a woman who had a haircut and looked just like this and in the passenger seat her husband sat staring forward and his hair was just like this.

It was very funny. Three equally comical and matching expressions coming towards me. It was all I could do to make sure I didn't crash into the hedge.