Catherine Scaife
she/her
Her Early Leaf’s a Flower
This project is a personal exploration of the fortitude and fragility of botanicals through a process of research, drawing, painting, material exploration and stitch.
The work comprises a hand made garment as wearable artefact, accompanied by a series of hand stitched sketches. The garment material is silk, hand painted, hand stitched, embroidered, constructed on the bias, and reflects the relationship between nature and cloth.
The project title is taken from a line in the poem, ‘Nothing Gold Can Stay’ by Robert Frost. This work invites the viewer to engage in a gentle experience, to reflect on the simple beauty that is a flower or a leaf. It is a call to rethink our understanding of the natural world and its interconnectedness with all things.
Ivy, silk and tulle, burned with a soldering iron, stitched with metallic threads.
Ivy, silk and tulle, five months on...
Linen with watercolour and hand-stitch.
Seven fabric dye test - with raspberry and cranberry teas, hand-painted and embroidered.
Detail - silk, hand-painted, embroidery with metallic threads.
Detail: mulberry silk, burned, hand-stitch.
Detail: silk and silk organza, hand-painted, hand-embroidered.
Silk dupion, hand-painted and embroidered, mulberry silk dyed with raspberry and strawberry teas.
Detail: silks, hand-painted, hand-embroidered.
Garment as Artefact: Silk, silk organza, tulle, hand-painted, hand-stitched, hand-embroidered.
Research
What Stands Behind the Flowers… — Hilma af Klint
Plant Drawings by Ellsworth Kelly
Detail: pencil study.
Sampling.