HATalk Competition Entry 2023

Margaret Hall

Maker
Margaret Hall

Country
Canada

Name of Hat
Avani

Description

This piece “Avani” (Sanskrit for the good earth) was created from experimenting with plant printing using the roots of the plant northern bedstraw on raw silk fabric. The delight in finding the red roots deep in the earth that gave me such lovely deep red prints that looked like blood vessels. This led to the idea of representing the earth through the nutrition that is brought from the earth to plants to us through our circulatory system. How dependent we all are on the earth for our life. I chose a circular block to represent the cycles of life supported by the earth and the promise of future crops.

Materials:

Plant printed raw silk, northern bedstraw roots and plant, iron mordant
Buckram base
Domette
Millinery wire
Red florists tape
Mulberry paper and raw silk dyed with brazil wood and quebracho red and iron mordant
Glass beads
Dupioni silk lining
Petersham ribbon and bias tape

Techniques:

Hand blocked buckram base wired inside edge and covered with domette and hand dyed silk.
Trimmed edges covered with bias tape prior to stitching curved petersham ribbon.
Hand made flowers from naturally dyed mulberry paper or raw silk stiffened with diluted PVA glue and shaped with heated flower tools.
Flower centres created by attaching to wire stems prior to passing through centre of flower and stems wrapped in florists tape.

Note: Entries have been not been edited or proofread to protect the integrity of the maker's original meaning.