The Endeavourers’ Reveal Day: Patterns in Nature
It is time for the quarterly reveal day for the online art quilt group, The Endeavourers. This time our theme was “Patterns in Nature.”
It took me a while to come up with an idea. I finally remembered that some of nature’s patterns are hidden to our eyes, but visible to birds and insects. What looks like a plain, solid-yellow flower to us, may have patterns that emphasize the plant’s center. With modern technology, we can see a simulation of what they see.
So that called for a double image — ordinary daylight on the front, and black light on the back. My inspiration photo was this one of some rudbeckia flowers and a hairstreak butterfly.
Then I did a little research to see actual patterns that show up in alternate light sources. There is a little on Wikipedia about flowers, and a lot of articles about fluorescence in butterflies (listed at end of post). I also found a study of a hairstreak butterfly and how a thermal camera reveals patterns of heat emission in its wings.
I purchased some neon and glow-in-the-dark threads and paints, and started playing. I soon found out that the threads and paints were limited in color, so my portrayal is just inspired by the hidden spectrum, and not scientifically accurate. :)
Okay, now for some notes on the comparison pictures. I flipped the pictures of the back so that they would be easier to compare to the pics of the front. And using black light to photograph is hard! I couldn’t get an evenly lit picture. But you get the idea.
On the front, the petals are made from batiks, with raw-edge applique using the neon thread. I added some stitched details with regular embroidery thread on top, and glow-in-the-dark thread on the bottom. The stitching created a mirror image flower design on the back. I quilted the background with regular thread on top and neon thread on the bottom.
As I was checking the stitching under a black light flashlight, I noticed that some other things in the sewing room glowed.
That prompted me to look through my existing supplies for anything else to use. In my bead supply, I found one set that showed up in black light, so they were perfect for the centers of the flowers. They look pink in daylight and orange under black light!
For the butterflies, I edited my photo of the hairstreak in different colorways. For each butterfly, I printed out two mirror images, and then fused them together. The pale ones for the front have some running stitches in silver. The ones for the back are colorful to portray the heat-emitting images. I used black light thread to add color to the veins in their wings, but ironically, the printer fabric glows white so the stitching doesn’t show that well.
Notes on Materials:
The neon threads were New Brothread polyester threads. They worked beautifully in both straight stitching and free motion quilting, BUT I bought the eight color assortment, and under black light, they show up only as either orange or green. (All the pinks and oranges show up orange, the yellows and green show up green.) I could have bought two spools instead of eight.
(It’s possible I don’t have the proper black light equipment to capture all the colors, but I think I have what most people would have. I have a black light flashlight from Lumenshooter, and some UV bar lights from Faishilan. )
The glow-in-the-dark threads were from Simthread. I bought the six color assortment (white, gray, blue, peach, green, yellow). These threads have a matte appearance, and I thought they were more linty than most threads. I used the light blue in this piece and in black light, it shows up as green. As far as glowing in the dark on their own, I could see the glow in the spools, but not in the stitching, even though I stitched lines very close together, about a square inch in area. In my opinion, the results were disappointing. I’m glad I didn’t use these on a Halloween costume or something that really needed to glow.
I also used FolkArt black light paint for some blue and orange touches, and they stayed true in color. But I would be cautious about using them because they can cover up the stitching.
Results
I had so much fun working on this piece. I don’t think I will ever try working with these effects again, because of the limited color palette of the neon yarns, but I enjoyed trying out the materials and adding layers of stitching.
Links for more research:
Ultraviolet radiation in butterflies
Biofluorescence in the stages of monarch life
More about seeing ultraviolet light
Tips for creating your own UV photographs
Some animals perceive colors beyond human vision
glow
I can see why you had fun making this incredible piece – just playing with the black light would be fun! It turned out nicely, and really fits the challenge theme well!
Thanks, Wendy! I had a hard time coming up with an idea for this theme, and I was actually thinking of just finishing a piece I started about 10 years ago, but your comments on your blog about how much fun you were having with the theme spurred me on to try a little harder! 🙂
Oh my – I’m glad I inspired you! You did well!
What a hoot! I have some fabric with stars that glow in the dark but I never thought about experimenting with black light. Open a night club with quilts on the walls?
I once saw an article about a man whose specialty is quilting on a longarm with black light threads, and I guess that planted the idea in my mind. I would like to find that article again though to see if he got more color variation than I did, because in my opinion those threads are pretty limited. It was fun to try once though!
I am gobsmacked by your creativity! This is so cool. I enjoyed looking closely at all the details, and admire your interpretation of the flowers and butterfly. This must have been hours in the making, not to mention the research that went along with it. It’s a bummer about the threads only showing up in two colors. Hopefully you’ll find an alternate use for them. On a somewhat unrelated note, we buy ultraviolet decals for our windows to reduce birdstrikes. They work beautifully.
Thanks, Alys! I really enjoyed the process; I find it so soothing. I will gladly spend hours doing some stitching that isn’t even apparent. 🙂
These are beautiful. How creative you are! And so much work. I love cone flowers/black-eyed susans – of course you would know the real name for them. 🙂
Well, I actually had to look up the name of the flowers, and in so doing, I found out that the experts have recently split them into two species! And I believe the difference is that in one, “The chaff sticks to the ray flowers.” So I am not exactly sure which species we have. I depend on iNaturalist which is an app that helps you ID plants and animals. 🙂
This was such a clever idea and it’s fascinating to learn about your techniques. It’s a bit annoying the threads didn’t show a greater variety of colours in the dark but the finished effect is wonderful and I can see it must have been a lot of fun to work on this piece 🙂
Thanks, Janine! I have seen some lovely black light pieces online and I need to find them and show what some people can accomplish with the technique. I had fun but I don’t think I will do it again. Unless the challenge requires it! 🙂
“The 70’s called”….hahaha!
I love this piece, btw. I can absolutely see that a lot of planning and work went into this design, but for this non-quilter, it’s the front side that I adore and its colors. It jumps out in such a happy way. In these short, dark days of winter, it gives you the warmth of spring and summer. I can picture it hanging in an old style farm kitchen with crockery bowls, baskets, mason jars, enamel ware, and antique cooking utensils. (Just not too near to the stove so it doesn’t get greasy. 😉)
The black light side has a whole different vibe. Black light and mirrored art deco?
Thanks, I really like that front side too! It is very sketch-like but I do love those colors. I am glad you can imagine it in one of those interiors you design so well!
Beautiful interpretations of Nature’s beauty! I love the stitch work that provides so much dimension and texture!
That’s really interesting. Thank you for going into detail
What a clever idea! And a lovely quilt.