Leaf curl and silken threads

As the participants of Deeper Voice of Textiles get underway developing plans for their contributions to the project and exhibition, I've begun to start my own making process. As I start a new project I like to gather local materials, experiment and play and not have too tight an idea of where the making process might lead. Ideas come and go and technical solutions and specific properties of materials guide the hand. As I have been untangling ropes and curling leaf plates in-between rain showers in the garden I see that I've been watched by the locals doing very much the same thing but on a different scale.

Above: One of the Leaf Curling Spiders (Phonognatha sp.) hiding above my garden workspace.
Below: Cabbage Leaf Palm (Livistona australis) leaf sheaths - hot pressed into sustainable plates and recycled from our welcome barbecue and re-processed for making.