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| Plants are the source of colour, imagery and meaning in my work, through drawing, stitch, dye and print. Our historical relationship with plants is symbiotic – human livelihood inextricably interconnected with the natural world. The process of my work reflects this; colour gives rise to embroidered marks, which kindle drawn lines, which in turn become the printed image. |
While I
believe I have already been employing several of TED’s Ten strategies in my
practice, the TED Research Group has increased my awareness of the many
important issues a designer and maker of objects must consider.
History and nature hold valuable design lessons that
increasingly inform my practice. Reconsidering design and lifestyle practices
of the past with a critical perspective teach us valuable object lessons. Different parts of many plants, such as
rhubarb may be consumed as food (stalk)
and used as dye (leaf). Historical and cultural examples of dress, such as the
Mexican huipil, a tunic made from one piece of cloth with very little cutting
and no waste, have inspired the forms for my own collection. My own work has
always featured personal stories and imagery mined from family history or
literature. Evocative imagery may spark
similar memories or reactions in others, creating emotional attachment to
objects of enduring value. The focus of my MA project at Chelsea is natural
dye printing. I choose to use natural dyes for their wonderful, harmonious
colour properties, and to reduce my own chemical exposure and impact on the
environment. With any textile print or dyeing process, water and energy use
must be of primary consideration. In my future research, I hope to further examine
simple technologies such as
grey water systems and filtration that would allow for recycling of water used
in the dyeing process, allowing residues to be composted, which have been
researched and employed by BioDye, an Indian natural dye company.
I am absorbed by burgeoning natural dye projects being established by community
groups, collectives and grass-roots organizations, which I see as being a part
of the larger DIY movement, signaling an intent by people to renew their
connection to their food, the landscape and using their hands. My own
collective, The Beehive, is
engaged in just this kind of activity.
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