Jade plant

I obviously shouldn't have let my subscription to Fiberarts magazine lapse. This work by Linda Hutchins was featured in the April/May issue. She sews organza around things. If you've ever dusted all the leaves on a jade plant you'll know that sewing around each leaf would be a bigger job than it looks - but what wonderful results -Here it is in process -
This is an excerpt from the article:
"Hutchins first employed organza in Jade Plant (2001), sheathing every leaf and branch of the potted succulent in a slipcover she painstakingly fashioned of the shimmering fabric. Uprooted and wall-mounted for exhibition, the plant shriveled inside its intricate custom nylon suit, lovingly protected yet ruthlessly abused. As an environmental statement, Jade Plant points to humanity's uneasy relationship with nature, alternately nurturing and destructive. On a more intimate level, the piece evokes the way objects in our care (children, mates, parents) sometimes elicit contradictory feelings, at once tender and hostile. The rich metaphorical possibilities are typical of Hutchins's approach, as is the labor-intensive process of making."

On her website, it's instructive to see the pages of her notebook.