Week 62: Adobe Illustrator

Mulberry leaves © Karen Thiessen, 2013

For me, the mulberry leaf is another symbol of my Russian Mennonite culture. In the early to mid-1800s there was a Mennonite silk industry in Russia (present-day Ukraine) that was displaced by other industries only to be revived in the 1920s when textile supplies were unavailable as a result of war. Silkworms feed on mulberry leaves and then spin their cocoons. One day I'll share more of my research into the Mennonite silk industry that I conducted from 1999 to 2002. In the meantime, you can read a fictional account of it in Sandra Birdsell's book The Russländer.

I live in a city that is populated by mulberry trees tucked away in alleys. During mulberry season my hubby and I go on after-supper mulberry-eating walks. Last summer I pressed a fresh mulberry leaf in one of my sketchbooks. I scanned it and imported it into Adobe Illustrator where I traced it and then put it into repeat. The negative spaces are rather nice.