So, remember when I decided to remove "the dude selling Christmas trees"?  I was left with this - which was a problem.

But how to cover it up?  I tried painting it (didn't help), melting it (the base of this piece is a man-made fabric) but it only scorched it. So then I tried painting the scorching which also didn't work, so I had to remove the paint and then scorch the whole thing to match, giving it a nice, yellow cast (good thing I'm not planning to enter it in any shows!) and then I sat and puzzled till my puzzler broke.

So what did I do?



I put the trees back in.  <SIGH>



I should have stopped here, right?



BUT NO.  I cannot leave well enough alone.



Dude selling Christmas trees is back. The good thing is, with all the detail in the piece now, it doesn't stick out as much as it did in the original incarnation of the dude. 

So, for next time, what would YOU do?



While I'm re-visiting Last Fall, In Spring, I thought I'd show you the back. Lately, I've been mounting my work on frames from second hand stores and charity shops (attaching the piece with a staple gun) and then sewing on a false back by hand. When it's done - I screw picture hanging hardware onto the frame and it's done.

I like the look of it, but I may stop doing it because it makes it difficult to keep clean.  I'll have to think about it and consider options. :)

Now on to the fugitive media.


The other set was draped over the top of a bookcase in my sewing room and was just let to sit. They weren't exposed to natural sunlight, but were exposed to florescent lighting.   As you can see, there were some issues.



Although I'm posting these pics eight months after my initial pounding, the process was actually arrested at the six month mark - at which point both of these pieces were put away in the dark.

So, if you can figure out a way to mordant the cloth before you do the pounding, you may get a longer lasting result than I did, but this isn't something I'll be trying again.  If I'd left the top piece out another two months, it may have disappeared altogether!

UPDATE:  Colleen Cole advises that she has used alum and washing soda as a mordant on fabric and that her results have lasted 7+  years. She learned the technique from "Flower Pounding" a book by Ann Frishkorn.





Completely unrelated but since I'm doing a chatty post;  I thought I'd show you these super cute tools I picked up at the weekend - this little scissor and tweezer set ought to make my detail work a lot more fun, no?

See you on Friday with the beginnings of something new!