Japanese maple

Yes, I love everything japanese these days! I haven't got this beautiful tree in my garden, but had the luck to pass by a couple of trees which had made a thick, soft, ruby, leafy layer on a pavement. So I had to lie down in it, being total weird and an embarrassment to my daughter. - Well, actually I didn't really lie down - I grabbed a bag and stuffed it with incredibly glowing-red leaves. And stayed up half the night to wrap some of them in different kinds of fabric I had laying around.

cotton velours ...

 silk ...

cotton ...

wool ...

silk noil ...

 silk...

silk ...

left: wool, right: silk ...

I didn't use any additives, just wanted to see how different kinds of fibres would react to the leaves. Cotton turned out in cool green, brown and yellow shades. Wool warmer yellow, rust, peach and pink. And silk pink/brownish pink/peach-yellow-purple. Interesting.

I like to pin the fabrics to the walls to see how they look together. In the last photo there's an eucalypt experiment in the middle. I've started stitching something with some of the fabrics - will show you when finished.