Solarscape - Hydrogen Atoms

This is a detail image of an entry into Amy Hooton's competition. [link]

The entries must be inspired by Amy's art in her gallery.
Her ink works always make me think of galaxies and constellations. The swirling gases that we have evolved from.

These hand painted pieces of cloth were created several years ago and have been pined to my design wall ever since. Amy's contest has inspired me to actually do something with them.

They represent nuclear fusion on the sun, where the heat is so great the hydrogen atoms undergo nuclear fusion and turn into helium atoms. This chain reaction then goes on to make heavier elements like carbon, oxygen etc.

The central red threads represent the splitting of atoms, the red beads are the hydrogen atoms and the purple beads the helium atoms which are rising to the outer layers of the sun.

Hand painted silk, free machine stitching, beading and fabric markers.