I have long wanted to learn how to print with natural dyes. What could be a more fitting medium for a project about Nature’s patterns?
My weekend at Ceres print studio in Brixton with designers Lara Mantell and Flo Hawkins was more magical than I had imagined. Nature delighted us at every step with one transformation or another.
On Saturday we discovered the breadth of Nature’s palette. Here are: pomegranate, peach (coreopsis & madder wood extract), weld, yellow onion, logwood, red onion, chlorophyllin, sappen wood, red cabbage and Japanese indigo. The horizontal bars from top to bottom are the affects of acid, alkaline and iron respectively.
Our beautiful complex world is conjured from a few particles and some physical laws, so on Sunday I decided to follow Nature’s lead. I made a design using a simple triangle motif and some basic geometric operations. I used a limited range of dyes made from the more familiar domestic plants - pomegranate, red onion, red cabbage and indigo. Here are the results in a small exhibition on linen and silk, shown with the samplers made the day before.
I am enraptured by this transforming, generous and gentle process.