Embroideries based on photo walk and sketches. Part one. Brambles.

As one of the recommended fabrics for this part was hessian, I thought I might use it as inspiration for my first embroidery for this section - here's the original picture from that recommended inspiration walk earlier in the folder.Yeah, it was really overcast that day!

As you can see, the briers and dead plants flop all over each other, and go across the frame of the picture in every direction. In the lower right is the only real dash of colour, some dark green leaves.
I thought that I would use a fabric that would be useful in creating as many of those crossing lines as possible, but at the same time, would give it a sense of depth, as there is in the photo. Well, I did a few sketches, but they didn't really help me out much - all you really get when you try and sketch this subject is a dark background, crossed by lines in each direction and a few green splodges. I didn't want a plain black background, or to use more pinstripe, as it was too similar to the last exercise. In the end, thinking about the hessian, I went for something with a very low thread count, was dark but transparent, and would therefore show up both the threads heading out topside and returning on the underside. I chose an old piece of millinery sinamay, which I believe is made from banana plant fibres. I then chose dark shades of different sizes and went wild, finishing it off with green embroidery silks for the leaves. I decided not to use any machining this time, as I didn't feel it would cling well to the loose weave, and if it looped up, it'd show through in a big way. Anyway, here's a picture of the result. When you hold it up to the light, it makes for a lovely effect.