The first prints from my new series are ‘hot off the press’ as the saying goes, and just in time for the early spring we are having here in the Kootenays. Our bees are already buzzing around outside looking for flowers, pestering me as I get in some early gardening – they buzz in my face inquisitively, as if my activity will miraculously produce some tasty blossoms.
I am a gardener, beekeeper, nature lover and I work with natural dyes. Pollination is such a joyful expression of aliveness in nature and conjures such beautiful imagery for me. I envisioned these images on wearables and at the table on napkins and tablecloths. So far I have produced five new designs and I still have a few more up my sleeve which will be happening over the next few weeks. Here are some of my images, showing the process from drawing to screen prints on small naturally dyed and fiber reactive dyed pieces of cloth.
I work first with pencil and then in pen and ink. I like to use an old fashioned ‘dip’ pen and black ink – see image of cherry blossom on the left and same drawing in black just below it.
” Cherry blossoms” – showing pen and ink drawing and first prints on cloth. The middle piece is plant dyed cotton.
“Honey bee” and small “Cherry blossom with pollen” – pen and ink drawings and screen printed on shibori stitched and hand dyed cotton fabric.
“Cherry blossoms” printed on hand dyed hemp/cotton and “Honey bee” printed on hand dyed vintage linen.
” Bees in Flowers” have been an ongoing theme for me. This print is quite small and I visualize it on a cloth napkin. The tiny cherry blossom at the bottom right on natural dyed cotton I will be using for a small necklace pendant. it looks beautiful with the larger print – the specks of pollen provide a continuity to the design.
A collage of “Pollination” prints – waiting to be heat set and then made into wearables. Some of these fabrics I have already surface designed with stitched shibori and layers of discharge print. I work on large pieces as well as tiny pieces of textiles with a variety of surface design techniques and hand dyed colours. I then have them handy to print on when I need them.
The first finished pieces to come out of this series – “Pollen” necklaces with macro images of lily pollen – layers of hand dyed cloth, hand made hemp silk cords and mother of pearl buttons.
To view items from “Pollination” please visit my Etsy shop here:
https://www.etsy.com/shop/MorgenBardati?ref=hdr_shop_menu
or my Facebook page here:
https://www.facebook.com/MorgenBardati?ref=hl
