Inspired Textiles

Bev choose this scarf that I printed from the material we collected from her garden. She was concerned that her neglected garden wouldn’t have sufficient suitable plants. They have been concentrating on renovating their house and the garden has taken a back seat recently. I assured her that it’s not alway the prettiest manicured plants that make the best marks and prints. We collected a selection of leaves and weeds from the country lane that borders her garden. She chose a 150x40cms habotai scarf and I went away to bundle. The best approach I felt was to print two mirror images of the same material so she had a choice. She chose the above which was the iron soaked scarf twin of a tannin soaked scarf. The high tannin leaves, stems and heads of weeds and plants have the deep purples and aubergine shades. The mesh effect of the Cotinus spent flower heads prints dark grey. Overall a delightful colour scheme. Bev’s comments say it all. “I am absolutely delighted and love Mar...

This scarf was a real surprise when I unbundled it. I originally dyed the silk twill in cochineal then picked some of the remaining Acer Griseum leaves before they all fall. To achieve the discharge I laid an iron blanket on the top of the leaves before bundling. It was steamed for two hours.

My latest set of botanical printed scarves. I predyed with natural dyes before contact dyeing.  This crepe de chine silk scarf was dyed with cochineal achieving a pale result before contact printing these lovely eucalyptus leaves. The resulting colour is a pleasing pinky grey. This crepe de chine scarf was predyed with logwood and then leaves from the same tree used this time they were not separated. The discharge effect this time is very dramatic. Overall very pleased with the result. This twill silk scarf was dyed in cochineal then contact printed with Acer leaves. For this silk noil scarf I dyed on logwood then used geranium, rose and continue leaves. Close up of geranium leaf.