Star Fruit

This week's journal may just be the oddest piece I've ever made. Believe it or not, it's based on the star fruit. Do you know what a star fruit is? Well, until I went to the grocery store this week, I didn't even know they existed. A basket of the rubbery, star-shaped fruit gave me a little giggle as I passed them by in the produce department. Intrigued and amused, I took one home.

The internet said that star fruit are mostly sweet with a hint of tart, tasting like a combination of various fruit. But my inexperience with star fruit meant I selected a lousy specimen; it tasted awful. The slices, however, really looked like stars and that was fun. I decided to salvage the situation by using the slices as stamps.

I painted the slices purple and stamped all over a piece of commercial fabric. (The fabric dictated the color.) Then, I went back to the grocery store for another star fruit to be my model. I took a picture of the fruit "head on" to emphasize the star-like shape. I printed the photo onto fabric and fused it to the stamped fabric.

At this point, I was stumped. The picture was too small for the space and the hint of green color in the fruit looked yellow. I tried, unsuccessfully, to brighten it up with colored pencils. I tried to use letter stamps, but they got lost in the background. Ultimately, I painted (more like doodled) around the fruit and stamps, embroidered the lines of the fruit edges, filled in the stamps with marker, and added lots of stars and beads to fill in the background. I handstitched around the edges because -- gulp! -- my machine is still under repair.

This certainly isn't the most sophisticated piece I've ever created; I think it turned out a bit like a circus banner. But I did have fun, once I relaxed a bit. It's interesting to think that a trip to the produce department was the impetus for a journal piece. I guess you really never do know where inspiration will come from.

Here's an unretouched photo of the model: