Yellow Weld Alchemy
Botanical Print
Made when I found the native dyeplant weld growing in the walled garden and around Pilton when the roadside verges weren’t being cut. So many wildflowers flourished in new places I found during my lockdown wanders.
I gathered a few precious flowering spikes and left more for the bees and seeds later as part of my sustainable horticultural practice reaching into environmental art too.
I hope this image reflects a moment in time and the seasonal flora of high spring 2020 (Technically this fabric print was a revelation, joyous lightbulb moment employing an experimental mordant blend and new ecoprinting technique for the first time).
Steam printed at home in my back garden reclaimed space in a little bubble of tranquility. It is hard to describe in words the immersive sensory process of the making of natural dyes and ecoprints. The natural dye, leaves and flowers used fill the air with their combined fragrances connecting deeply with a visual memory of the garden and plants growing at that moment in time.
The yellow dyeplant weld has been used in Britain since the earliest medieval period and probably before. ‘Time Traveling with colour’ To now work with the same plant found growing wild locally, to pick and gather at the best time, draw out its pigments and see first hand the most vivid of yellows emerge from a pot of rainwater and leaves on the fire.
Somehow profoundly satisfying to me on many levels and I didn’t even like the colour yellow.
Sumac and Fireweed
Botanical Print
The day I made these was an inspiring walk to the shore where vivid yellow flowers and a blue sky helped to clear my head and relax. I then found a new to me natural dye and took this image to document the process and ingredients used at the walled garden. (this bench is beside my ‘saggy roof’ studio).
Indigo Blue Shadows
Botanical Print
Last one is of handdyed silk squares collection and my lockdown cushion cover. My first ever attempt at making an indigo dye bath using dried leaves from a pack of hairdye. Somehow I managed to make a sky blue/turquoise scarf and very pale blue cushion cover to use up last of dye.
At the time I made these I was not able to access the walled garden but somehow with fine weather I was able to reclaim a tiny space in my back garden. The shadows from my jungle woodland back garden get very long at a certain time. Looking at them makes me realise how much being in the natural environment is part of who I am and helped me no end during some frightening periods of the lockdown when news and events made me feel quite unsafe. In making simple colours from plants outdoors in a peaceful setting and then in my own back garden as the season progressed I was able to find a safe and therapeutic space in a time of fear.
