Sunday 12 June 2016

Finally beautiful printed scarves

After 5 months of experimenting, I was confident enough to purchase some silk scarves and begin eco printing them with the idea of selling my work. Since I showed them at Thames Creative Fibre last week and uploaded some to my Felt shop they have been selling like hot cakes.
Using only pigments found naturally in the plants, the printed scarves have fine details and mostly delicate colours. I plan to make more soon that give pinks and purples.  What I like the most are the surprises when a new colour emerges from a leaf or petal and the gentle impact of this craft on my environment. Leaves return to the earth via the compost, mordants are simple like rusty nails and seawater. I use steam to extract the pigments and I gather the plants on walks or sometimes I spot them on road verges or in friend's gardens. I've even knocked on doors and asked if I could gather samples. No one has ever said "No". I've used metres of silk testing plants and always there are surprises.
These have all sold but I will put more photos in more recent blogs.










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