Flowers, Leaves and Berries is a new artwork designed for the Embroiderers’ Guild Members’ Challenge ‘ Colour Rhythms’.
On hearing the theme my first thought was the rhythms of the seasons. My challenge was translating that into cloth and stitch. Each year I spend time in my shed, hand dyeing and contact leaf printing cloth with leaves and flowers from my garden and chose to use some of these natural dyed fabrics in this artwork.
Buckets of water, some old jars and pans, and a pair of Marigold gloves. This is my happy place. Messing about in the shed, preparing cloth for pots of simmering dye and a window bottom full of bejewelled solar dye jars. These natural dyed silks are the result of such a year of playing, and reflect the seasonal rhythm of nature. Each piece was hand dyed from foraged and dried botanicals. The poem around the outside border called ‘Flowers, Leaves and Berries’ are my own words.
Size 30 x 30cm. Hand embroidered text onto cotton cloth using vintage Sylko thread. Hand appliqued silk circles using 100 weight Kimono silk thread.
Flowers Leaves and Berries
The central panel of naturally dyed silks formed the starting point for the artwork. I wanted a square panel full of coloured circles – a bit like a sampler – and experimented with different arrangements including spirals before settling on the 5 x 5 format.
The outer border features a poem that I wrote specifically for this piece.
Collect old clothes and linens, and odd skeins of thread,
Cut up, wash and rinse them, pile up in the shed,
The fibres of cotton, wool, linen and silk,
Which I’ll mordant with soda ash, alum, and milk.
I sometimes use iron, tea, sumac and try,
The tannins in mordants that help set the dye.
Pick flowers, leaves and berries, roots, seeds and bark,
And make stock pots of colour from light through to dark.
Then modify the fabrics, and peg out on the line,
As my rainbow of colour dries in the sunshineFlowers, Leaves and Berries by Catherine Hill
Last year I created ‘Good Grub‘ which was awarded ‘Winner of the Beryl Dean Award for Hand Embroidery’ in the Embroiderers’ Guild 2024 Members’ Challenge ‘Opposites Attract’.