What Endures
This collection explores the juxtaposition between fragility and resilience through winter trees and skeletal leaves. Stripped back by the changing seasons, bare branches and delicate leaf skeletons appear vulnerable, yet continue to withstand harsh weather conditions, revealing a quiet strength beneath their delicate appearance. Through organic shapes and a muted winter palette, this work explores the idea that vulnerability and resilience are not opposites, but qualities that coexist.
Digitally embroidered bodice based on the shapes of bare winter tree branches carrying nutrients through the tree, and how this mirrors the human body’s circulatory system. Silk skirt digitally printed with a design made through a series of photographs that captured delicate winter leaf skeletons thawing in ice. The fabric has been worked into using reverse applique with hand-dyed cotton organdie. Free machine embroidery and hand-cut sections create dual transparency, alongside hand-stitched embroidered leaf shapes. The top of the skirt has been hand-gathered and finished with hand-dyed cotton organdie, gently frayed.
Hand-dyed cotton organdie is finished with hand-cut sections to create contrasting levels of transparency, like a winter’s fog.
Moodboards of my photography and multimedia drawings during the design development process. Oil pastel (left) and drawing inks (right).
Photography capturing delicate leaf skeletons gradually thawing in ice.
Moodboard of ink drawings, photographs and fabrics
Textural cotton velour hand-dyed and hand-cut into shapes of winter tree branches, applied to semi-transparent hand-dyed cotton organdie, creating a contrast of textures and opacities to reflect those found all around in a winter woodland.
