Northern Lights Post Cards

I'm still experimenting with ways to depict the Northern Lights in fiber and stitch. This series was done with various fibers trapped under tulle.

At the Wisconsin Spin-in a few weeks ago, I purchased some deliciously dyed mohair locks from Colorfield Farm. This is what I did with them :




I'm quite happy with the way these turned out. I love the sheen/shimmer/luster these locks have. The curl makes them appear to be in motion--like real auroras. On a small 4x6-in postcard size, this method works really well. I'm not so sure it would work on a larger scale. It's certainly worth doing more experiments.

It's also interesting to note that various colors of tulle offer different effects. Some colors virtually disappeared (which is what I was looking for). Other colors obscured the fibers beneath. It's worth having a stash of tulle in various colors as well. For the post cards above, I used forest green and black tulle.


This is a sample of soy silk with tencil trapped under black tulle. I thought this one would be really hard to photograph, but it turned out well. At certain angles, it appears to have too little contrast with the background. But the flash picked up the luster just fine. This fiber feels really nice, but it lacks body.

The two below are soy silk. I'm not thrilled with the colors--looks more like cotton candy than northern lights. But for an experiment, it served it's purpose ... I used a sparkly while bridal tulle on this one because the fiber was kind of flat by itself.