Salal Armour

2' x 3'.

Salal leaves and felt.

Salal Armour is a decorative dress fortified by the shiny leaves of a tough, leathery shrub that grows in the Western Coastal region of North America. Its sweet but bland berries were (and still are) a feature of First Nations cuisine. This abundant, difficult-to-eradicate plant is regarded in some places as the bane of a gardener’s existence. This piece of armour proclaims salal’s innate invincibility. I chose leaves with a distinctive pattern of decay - they resemble sunlight glinting on metal.