Yesterday I started with what I thought would be a few circles around the moon but I was really caught up in the building up of colour with the stitches that I did not stop and loved the ending result. Peter saw a hurricane...I see a swamp at dusk. The edging is hand stitched with thick linen thread. See how flat it lays? I wasn't expecting this either but if must be the acryllic felt as batting that is responsible for the flatness. Behind the moon are 3 layers of felt which makes it rise up...its not visible in the photo but you can see it a little bit on the back-
A Huge Thank You to Dr. Paul Cappiello from Yew Dell Gardens!
He must flag the name of the gardens and I'm so happy he did! He answered the question about the pods I picked up from the ground in the comments of the previous post. Here is his reply:
The little "pod-like cones" are actually the fruiting structures from a magnolia. The specimens you picked up from the ground did not set any seed and that is why they were shed by the plant. The structure is actually an aggregate of follicles - if anyone cares.
Yew Dell
I care I care! I've started drawing these pods and I'm watching them decay still. They have turned to a blackish brown colour and have shrivelled in size. Reminds me that 'one needs substance because beauty doesn't last and is often fleeting'.
If I'm understanding his answer correctly, they would have tunred into the flower if they had seeded?
I love the pop up window when I click on your photos - is that a new thing in typepad? I don't see a swamp or a hurricane - the color looks more like a sunrise or sunset sky.
ReplyDeletei see a whirlpool and i love your website.
ReplyDeleteunless I've completely lost my mind it's the other way around. The fruit comes from the flower. These apparently passed through their life cycle unpollinated; perhaps mutants without all the requisite sex parts. I saw a breast. Or a crop circle. The pieces I've made with acrylic felt are extremely flat and that pleases me but I do not enjoy the struggle-process of sewing or beading through it.
ReplyDeleteAcey, are you saying if it had pollinated, the pod would have been the center of the magnolia flower? In reading about them, I was informed that the magnolia is among the ancient plants...created before bees where in existence, they are pollinated by beetles.
ReplyDeletehere's a link with some awesome pictures in case you didn't already find it:
ReplyDeletehttp://home.att.net/~SpanishMoss/pods.html
if the seeds were pollinated they would have grown so as to obscure what remained of the withering flower (think apples or for that matter oranges). Magnolia is definitely an ancient plant but I'd forgotten that part about beetles. Another cool snippet: in several indigenous cultures the flower has been associated with birth and midwifery. Sometimes a birthing cradle was lined with the flowers and used to 'catch' the newly emerged infant.