Plastic Garden. Finished artwork

At last this is finished, well almost, just got to cover the back. My plastic garden is where plastic grows among the weeds and grass. The plastic enhances the look of the garden, instead of making it a dump. Plastic can be seen in a positive way, when it is placed carefully on a scruffy grass verge, and decorated. This is the future, 100 years from now there will be many gardens and grass verges like this.

I have used a piece of green baize from a snooker table for the background. Blitzed it with scraps of fabric, wool, felt, fleece, and mesh fruit bags. Free motion stitching to hold it all down. This was difficult to do because it kept getting tangled in the sewing machine foot. I used an open toe foot, maybe a closed toe would have been better.

I have been collecting plastic bits for a while. The colours are so vibrant I don't like to throw them away. I made holes in them with a map pin so I could hand stitch into them, then stitch them onto the background.

Blue bottle tops with circles of coloured sticky back plastic on them, joined together with wire at the back and star shapes stitched onto them.

The swirls on the right are the curly parts of drinking straws. Stretch them out, cut off the straight bits, curl them round, and iron between two pieces of greaseproof paper. This flattens them.

The yellow and red plastic wheel is from a child's plastic construction kit.. Yellow wool wrapped around the spokes.

Yellow lid from a tub of gravy mix. I cut the flower shapes from sticky back plastic, added stitching and sequins. The long pieces are felt tip pens with the ends trimmed off.

This plastic wheel is from a pack of dressmaking sewing pins. The holes are already there so easy to sew embroidery thread through them. Centre is painted with nail varnish with glitter and beads added.

Plastic spoons from snack pack salad pots. I used a star shaped template to make the holes for the stitching.

The back board is bigger than the one used for the picture, to give it a border of 4.5 centimeters. Both boards are laced up this way at the back and the corners neatly stitched with matching thread. The light beige fabric I used for this came from a divan bed which a friend gave me when they moved house. I took it apart to use the wood and fabric.

I have screwed the picture onto the back board from the back. They do not show at the front because I put them in where the raised bottle tops are. The picture is firmly fixed.

 The coloured flowers were Christmas tree lights in clear plastic, I painted them with nail varnish.

The yellow wheel is another part from the child's construction kit. Wool threaded through the holes to make the triangular patterns. Weaving through the spokes around the centre, and buttons added.

I decided to join all the components up with red chain stitch so it didn't just look like they were stuck there separately. This chain gives it a life, the way all nature is interconnected. One feeds off another. The heart in the centre is where all life evolves from.

Phew, that's taken a long time to make, and a few hours to make the video, take the pictures, and write it up. I think I'm due for a rest.   ilona