Too long in the compost heap!

I posted a few weeks ago about the encaustic work of Lorraine Glessner and decided to wrap a few pieces of calico with waste material and throw them in my compost bins. After a fortnight I retrieved one piece which had some interesting marks on it but left the others alone for a further week.

Deciding that not much was happening I then transferred them a fortnight ago to my grass clippings heap, intending to leave them for a while. However, last night, the inclination seized me to check on their progress..... and am I glad I did, or else I would have had nothing to check on if I'd left it any longer! The fabric had just rotted away in the heat of the pile and all I could find from three large pieces of fabric were these fragments.

But.... look at some of these wonderful marks. They are just glorious but I cannot for the life of me remember which plant material made these wonderful range of colours.

If I can salvage enough of a piece without rips or tears I shall now cover a small canvas and paint the canvas with layers of wax to see what the effect is. As I've never done this before it will be yet another experiment. My only worry is that any slight pull on the fabric just rips it so I will have to be careful. Alternatively, what better reason to get out there and bury some more?