I am thrilled with my latest creation for Orb Hair, on James St at New Farm, in celebration of Easter this year … a giant woven egg!
I came across stunningly beautiful banana leaf handmade papers in natural, turquoise, red and saffron tones at Kami Paper in Melbourne’s Fitzroy. The colours and textures (each sheet is embedded with natural fibres and banana leaves) are so very special against natural light.
I cut the papers into 3cm strips (approximately) and made each piece about 1.2m in length before then weaving the strips ‘under and over’ until I had a big square woven blanket. I used the natural paper as the backdrop for the patterned, colourful egg! I was careful to weave the coloured eggs in the same place on both the front and reverse of the work to minimise any potential shadow effects and mainly, so the shape would be a feature of both sides.
Here are some pics of the work in process …
A close up of the beautiful handmade natural fibre/banana leaf papers I used. This one is turquoise in natural light.
Here is the ‘backdrop’ my square (1.2m x 1.2m) of woven natural toned paper (taken in candle light as I finished one evening!).
… to make the ‘egg’ centrepiece, I wove the different coloured strips through the natural ones.
I then trimmed the strips to form the edge of the egg.
Ta da!
I’m so very pleased with it. The papers as against the natural light in the window are just beautiful!
Peek-a-bo!