I had the perfect opportunity to work on my series in that last three days whilst participating in SAQA’s virtual conference.  What an experience! Read my earlier post http://SAQA 2020 MoSAiQA Conference (Toronto)

Nature’s Palette Series

I am continuing on my current series Nature’s Palette.  My current work focuses on materiality.   I challenge myself to use the fabric and paper that I use to wrap and protect the scarves and wraps I create in the dyeing and printing processes.

As I was sorting through some of the paper towel  that was used as a barrier for eco printing a scarf,  I came across a piece that spoke to me.  Usually I put them in my recycle pile.  I liked this piece and was going to mount it on canvas.  But then I gave myself permission to play.   Fabric was auditioned that was used to wrap my scarves for steaming and played.   I found a piece of cotton that would interplay with my paper towel piece.  Finally  I found I could place the paper on the fabric so that the lines from one would extend to the other.

So I stitched along the lines.  So as I listened to talks at the conference I kept stitching and voila.  My  finished piece.

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On Tuesday at the garden club little stems of Eucalyptus polyanthemos were used in a display. The differences between juvenile and mature leaves was very noticable especially as the mature leaves were more silvery. I couldn’t help myself and made the comment about whether they would be eco printing differently.  So I was given a small branch of each to try eco printing with, with the proviso, that I bring the results to the next garden club meeting.  I will happily do this. The front stem in the photo on the left has the juvenile leaves.

My experimentation steps:

When I came home I found some scraps of wool and silk for my experiment.  So as not to confuse which leaves I used, I decided to put a sprig of juvenile leaves on the fabric and to put each pair of mature leaves separately ie not attached to a twig/stem  in any way.  I lay the leaves out on each sample.  As I wanted to know how the front and back printed I folded the fabric in half on each sample.  For both the wool and silk samples I lay a  paper towel that had been dipped in a very very weak iron water solution over one sample and lay the other sample on top because it usually this will stop any echo printing.  I rolled it over a wood dowel and tightly bundled it.  I steamed both bundles together in my steamer and then left them to sit for 48 hours.  The temptation is to unbundle straight away.  I could see colour coming through the bundles – darker in one, brighter in the other.  The wool bundle looked darker.

Wow what a surprise.  The juvenile leaves seem to have a lot of pigment that carried through the layers.  The front of the juvenile leaf gave a bright eco print. The back of juvenile leaves gave a darker eco print.  The mature leaves gave a much darker rich ecoprint.

The colours overall were richer and deeper on wool.  (Photo on left.)

Some confusion

I must say say I was a little confused as the common name referred to at the garden club was silver dollar eucalyptus.  I always thought the Eucalyptus  Cinerea was the silver dollar eucalyptus.  Luckily they also referred to its botanical name.  In Australia it is also referred to as the red box gum but in California, US it is called the silver dollar.

To see my ecoprinting with other eucalypt leaves visit my Snowy Textiles page and to see how I use it in my art visit my gallery. 

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Extracting pigment from plants and soil is my way of

• saving colours,
• of finding hidden colours,
• of catching nature’s range of colours and arranging it on fabric and yarn.

Some colours stand up to washing whilst others fade quickly or disappear totally over time.  When dyeing with plants  I try to ensure that I use plants that are substantive and not fugitive.  For this reason I do not use eg berries.  I also try not to mix eco printing of exotic plants with our eucalypts as they have different requirements.

 I use natural fibres – silk, wool, cotton, linen, bamboo and paper.

 Environmentally responsible practices:

• low immersion process for dyeing
• minimising use of water in rinsing process to extract excess dyes
• collecting windfall foliage, or foliage cut down to clear foliage around electricity wires
• recycling cloth

I create original, unique one of a kind silk, wool, silk and wool blend, and cotton pieces using either  natural dyes, ecoprinting, fibre reactive or acid dyes.  Most pieces are created using plant material from the local environment, material collected on travels in Australia or personalised by using plant material from a person’s home environment.  Every piece is individually crafted using dyes extracted from plants or chemical dyes.

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Well Fashfest has been and gone.  It was a wonderful experience.  The models looked fantastic.  It was quite an experience to walk onto the runway as a designer.  The show looked fabulous.  I received a lot of fantastic comments during the break between the shows.  And several of the pieces have sold.  It was really great to have the support of another designer Elle Hopgood and my friend Flora Elliott.

What a fantastic night.  See the photos in the Gallery from Fashfest

Photographer: Angus Campbell

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Back of wool swing vest made with Australian wool

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