Natural-dyed pillowcases

Brief

Print colour onto silk using only flowers and leaves from around me, no dye from a bottle.

Scope

Gathering flowers & leaves
Laying out the print
Folding, rolling & steaming

Solution

A silk pillowcase printed by its own garden: hibiscus and bougainvillea turned into gold, rust and a soft grey-violet.

01 / Gather & lay

From the garden
to the cloth.

Hibiscus, bougainvillea, lantana and leaves, picked from the garden and around me, laid one by one on white silk. Where each petal sits is where its colour will land.

Hands arranging flowers and leaves on the silk — Fig. 01 — Laying the flowers

Close-up: placing a hibiscus on the silk — Fig. 02 — Petal by petal

02 / Bundle & steam

Folded, rolled,
steamed.

The silk is folded over the flowers, rolled tight into a bundle and steamed, so the petals press their colour into the fibre.

Fig. 03 — Folding the silk over the flowers

03 / The print

Unrolled
in the sun.

Unrolled and held up to the light: hibiscus turned to gold and rust, bougainvillea to a soft grey-violet. No two prints come out the same.

The printed silk lifted into the sun — Fig. 05 — In the sun

Detail of the printed flower marks — Fig. 06 — The marks

Every bundle comes out a little different.