Forest Reliquaries

Michele Heather Pollock

Since I can’t go to the woods much now, I’ve begun to ask myself: what it would mean to bring the forest into the studio? Forest Reliquaries are a literal re-framing of nature, a re-contextualization into man-made vessels. Think terrariums. Think museum specimens. I’ve been collecting antique boxes, canning jars, bell jars, old books, damaged frames. From my years of woods-walking I have thousands of photos of the tiny things I found. Now I’m using machine quilting, hand embroidery, beading, and new paper and fabric sculpture techniques to re-create tiny bits of the forest in my studio. Collected and displayed together, they comprise a cabinet of curiosities honoring my love of the forest floor.

Michele Heather Pollock

Columbus, Indiana

Forest Reliquary #1, 2021

Machine quilted, hand embroidery, beading, sculpture.

Akin to a terrarium or something found in a Cabinet of Curiosities, Forest Reliquary #1 captures tiny handmade paper mushrooms and hand-embroidered moss in an antique glass jar.

Courtesy of the artist

Columbus, Indiana

Forest Reliquary #2, 2021

Machine quilted paper, hand embroidery.

An antique tin box holds a tiny treasure: machine quilted paper mushrooms and hand embroidered moss.

Courtesy of the artist

Columbus, Indiana

Forest Reliquary #3, 2021

Machine quilted paper, hand sewn assembly.

Housed in an antique cigar box, Forest Reliquary #3 holds a colony of machine quilted paper Turkey Tail mushrooms.

Courtesy of the artist

Columbus, Indiana

Forest Reliquary #4, 2021

Machine quilted paper, hand embroidery, beading, sculpture.

Housed in an antique tin box, Forest Reliquary #4 holds tiny paper mushrooms, handembroidered and beaded moss, and quilted paper leaves.

Courtesy of the artist

Columbus, Indiana

Forest Reliquary #7, 2021

Machine quilted paper, hand embroidery, beading, sculpture.

An old wooden box that once contained port wine now holds a small part of the forest floor, including a recycled cardboard tree stump, quilted paper leaves and ferns, paper mushrooms, and hand-embroidered and beaded moss.

Courtesy of the artist

Michele Heather Pollock Columbus,

Indiana

Every Leaf on Every Tree, 2022

Eco-dyed wool felt, hand quilting, hand embroidery

In my woods, I have counted at least 27 different species of native trees. As homage to these trees, and the importance of them in my life personally and in the life of the local ecosystem, I have re-created a single leaf from each of these trees. I collected leaves from each tree and made acrylic prints. These prints were used to make patterns from which I cut the leaves from used coffee filters dyed with watercolors. I hand-embroidered the vein structures into the paper leaves with cotton thread. Every Leaf on Every Tree showcases these biologically accurate embroidered leaves against a piece of handquilted wool felt eco-dyed with leaves from these same trees.

Courtesy of the artist