Plants are the way.-

 

A friend was trimming her Umbrella trees (Schefflera heptaphylla) and she gave me the discarded branches and leaves. With a group of friends, we started exploring the plant together, brainstorming, exchanging ideas and then invited more friends to join us. 

 

In our little exploratory setting, I decided I wanted to process the tree and use a small frame loom to weave something; I wanted to delve into the importance of weaving and, more specifically, weaving directly with plants in our modern way of life, in which we seem to have broken an ancient, sacred covenant with nature. 

​

The smell of the plant, as I cut it and processed it, was intoxicating, highly stimulating and beautiful. Together with the Umbrella tree, I set out to find dried branches and leaves to be part of the whole structure as well. 

 

The overall idea was that of shared physical spaces and spaces of thought. As our minds worked the materials, the physicality of our common effort was manifest and, although each participant had different uses for the plants, it ignited a synergistic interaction and collective learning.    

​

Photography: Luana Kim