Printing - Botanical Scarf Printing
Botanical printing: print your own linen scarf with Australian native plants with the talented and knowledgable Belinda Evans. Learn how to print on linen scarves with flowers, leaves and seed pods that you can find in your garden to create subtle, abstract patterns and natural colours.
Teacher: Belinda Evans
Workshop Duration: Full Day
Description: In this full day workshop you'll learn how to prepare cotton and linen textiles for natural dyeing, choose plant materials, and use those materials to print and dye with.
You'll learn how to prepare and mordant cotton and linen textiles for botanical printing to get the best colours from your printing and help make them colourfast, how to collect and prepare plant materials for printing, and how to use those materials to print on plant-based textiles.
We'll use Australian native plants that you can find in your garden, in parks and on nature strips to create subtle, unique patterns and natural colours on your own natural linen scarf. You'll be able to use the skills you learn at this workshop to print clothing, household linens, cotton and linen fabric for quilting, cushion covers and more. You can use these techniques to create new pieces or bring new life into faded textiles.
Materials: There will be a materials cost of $30 for your prepared and mordanted linen scarf and other printing materials.
Bring a pen, notepad and apron and wear warm clothing as we will be working outdoors for some of this workshop. Please note that natural dyes can stain clothing so make sure that you wear something that you wouldn't mind getting a few splashes of colour on.
OPTIONAL: Plant materials to print with will be provided, but if you have any flowers, leaves or seed pods that you'd like to use please bring them along (they don't have to be Australian natives!).
Takeaway: You'll take home your own scarf that you've printed at the workshop and notes on the preparation, mordanting and printing/dyeing process for linen and cotton textiles.
Level: This class is suitable for beginners and those with some natural dyeing or printing experience who want to learn more.
So I wrote last week a post asking “Is my making fast fashion?”. And then I did a video on Instagram discussing similar topics in a slightly different way. And as always, you lovely humans have helped me clarify some of my thinking with your thoughtful, clever commentary.
And while I think there is so much more to discuss, here are four key possibly-more-meta ideas that have come up for me out of those conversations.
In using the quote last week that suggested that there was no single answer, and suggesting that this was freeing, I really did mean that we should sit in the grey. Not that the lack of “an” answer to this question should mean we get to ignore the question but rather that the lack of “an” answer means that we need to keep asking bigger more beautiful questions. And keep asking them.
Is my making fast fashion?
Am I living my values or merely thinking them?
And how can I make those two things a little more aligned in this moment?
These are my big beautiful questions.
Yours might be different.
And importantly this leads to point 2.