Dee Kelly is a powerhouse when it comes to stitch and lately she has been experimenting with stitch in organic and natural materials.   Her latest and very beautiful works are ‘Garlic Whimsy I and II’, which are exquisite pieces of stitch on dried garlic skins. The papery texture and bleached white of the garlic skins are very beautiful and look amazing mounted on white paper.

Dee has also been experimenting with Avocado pits as she has just shared with us :

” I recently dyed some Khadi paper using Avocado pits.  I just left them overnight in a plastic tray (no chemicals were used in the process).  The colour tones were amazing from peach to rust.

I also dried the skins of the Avocado, which became hard and brittle. Using embroidery cotton I stitched into the papers and the skins.  I was so excited with the results and mounted three pieces onto a painted artist canvas.  Just as I was deciding to bring the piece to be framed I got a terrible thought – WILL IT FADE?  Imagine in a few months’ time if the paper bleached and all that is left is the dried Avocado skin and stitching.  So I decided it will have to hang in my workroom, for a while, to see how the natural dyed colour of the Avocado pits hold up to daylight!

Has anyone else tried dying with Avocado pits…I would be interested to hear the results?”     Dee Kelly