I’m pleased to be able to let you know more about a new project I’ve just started - learning about natural dyes and pigments, both foraged and grown.
This is a long term project to bring more environmentally friendly and sustainable materials into my practice, but also to develop my work to serve a little more directly as a voice for nature.
I intend to forage pigment from various sources on the island and to also grow some plants for colour too. I’m currently on the ‘From Seeds to Blue’ course with Elisabeth Viguie Culshaw in collaboration with the Botanic Gardens in Glasgow, growing indigo and woad.
I’m really lucky to have been supported in this by our local community garden Bute Produce who are affording me a small plot in the garden for these plants, as well as lots of other dye plants. This also means that there will be a lovely community element to this part of the project too, as I link in with the garden’s ‘mindful gardening’ programme.
We had our first open day event back on the 1st May, where we sowed all the seeds for the Dye Garden and planned what needed to be done to prepare the outdoor beds for planting.
The plants have been progressing well in the polytunnel and we even managed to get some out into the ground at the beginning of June!
The next event will be 21st June 2024, Summer Solstice, where I will host some art activities and the garden team will facilitate other events across the site.
I’ll keep recording progress here and, probably more regularly, on my social media channels.