Lake Pigments

By Art, Botanical Dye, Botanical Ink, Experiments, Play, Process

I recently did an online lake pigment workshop with Natalie Stopka (I’d recommend) which was super informative and fun and has opened up a whole other dimension of exploring plant colour. Being able to transform exhausted dye baths into pigment powder colours is very useful since storing them can be difficult and often leads to mold and in my case rows of jars of murky liquids whose labels have fallen off.

The process is so alchemical and beautiful. There is frothing and fizzing and pools of deep colours as the pigments are filtered. Nothing is fixed and there are are so many changes, colours that start bright purple can end up pale pink.

m a g i c

Ink for Marion

By Botanical Ink, Experiments

Marion asked me to make an ink for a stamp she as carving. The inks I usually make are watery, reduced to concentrate plant materials boiled in water. I am curious, I like to experiment and investigate so I cannot help but to research, to try to find a way to make an ink suitable for printmaking.

I read recipes that require ingredients I do not have. I know an ink for printmaking would need to be viscous, thick and have a deep colour. Eventually the solution is part cheat as I find some old but still usable transparent printmaking extender. I make charcoal with willow which I mix with the extender and more or less it functions to print the stamp Marion has made.

Exhibition Barbate BARBA-T

By Art, Ecology, Exhibition

Botanical dreams exhibited as part of the BARTBA-T exhibition in La Lonja, Barbate.

Mapeo botánico

“Mapeo Botánico” es un experimento de extracción de colores, todos los colores fueron hechos con tintes y tintas botánicas; de flores, hojas, corteza, frutas y raíces. La obra es un proceso en constante evolución, y una relación de profundizar con la vida vegetal y el medio ambiente que me rodea. Todo ha sido teñido con plantas que crecen en esta zona, es un trabajo específico del lugar.

Para trabajar con plantas necesitas conocerlas, aprender cuales son, dónde y cómo crecen. Cada planta tiene sus propias características; qué condiciones favorece para su crecimiento, qué polinizadores atrae, qué larvas se alimentan de ellas; el trabajo es parte investigación y parte exploración de los usos. Requiere sumergirse y prestar atención.

Nuestra historia de relación con las plantas es larga y dependemos de las plantas para la mayoría de las cosas en nuestra vida. En el pasado era necesario conocer las plantas que nos rodean para la comida, la medicina, la fabricación y el teñido. Y este era un conocimiento importante y sigue siéndolo, aunque para nuestra vida diaria ya no dependamos tanto de él. En el trabajo con las plantas de una manera práctica es importante saber lo que es tóxico y podría ser potencialmente peligroso.

El proceso de teñido es experimental, lúdico, desordenado. Descubrí que es bueno llevar registros, que es mejor ser metódico, que esto es química y que me gusta. Hago colores que pueden desvanecerse y eso está bien, que no todo es permanente; este es un trabajo de proceso donde un resultado fijo no es necesariamente importante. Si los colores se desaparecen, las telas pueden ser teñidas de nuevo.

Colecciono flores y mantengo un ojo curioso abierto a nuevas plantas con las que trabajar. Sólo busco lo que es abundante, a menudo tomo flores u hojas que han caído al suelo. Un metodo que uso con tarros solares no usan energía, los materiales vegetales y las telas se dejan en un tarro al sol. Es un proceso de mínimo impacto y máxima paciencia.

En la paleta de colores de los campos de Vejer oxalis y acebuche son las joyas aquí para mí. Por su riqueza de color y presencia, tan ubicua y llamativa. Las acebuchinas que tiñen el suelo bajo los árboles, los excrementos de pájaros púrpuras que encuentro en mi coche, este es un color serio; un hermoso azul púrpura profundo. El oxalis, Oxalis pes-caprae conocido aquí coloquialmente como vinagretas, es el alegre amarillo que barre el paisaje en primavera. Aunque es invasiva, no ha demostrado serlo negativamente y hace que el color del tinte amarillo del sol sea tan radiante como la propia flor.

Sueños botánicos

Hace tiempo que me interesa la estructura del geodomo, los patrones geométricos de las formas que se repiten. Durante el largo proceso de experimentos con tintes, recolectando material vegetal a través de las estaciones, tuve la idea de ver todos los colores juntos en un espacio donde pudieran ser contemplados como un todo. Considerar el geodomo me ayudó a encontrar una manera de encajar estas ideas.

Veía los materiales que teñía en el tendedero fuera de mi casa, en tarros, en cubos y en sartenes en mi cocina. En mis reflexiones durante los procesos consideré mi relación con la vida vegetal, del ser con el medio ambiente, la dicotomía del interior con el exterior. Llevo las plantas a mi cocina para extraer su color. Observo y recojo lo que crece a mi alrededor. Contemplaciones sobre las plantas y color y relaciones.

No tenía ni idea de cómo se vería todo hasta que lo junté, cuando se le dio forma como un todo con la estructura del geodomo. La primera vez que monté la estructura en Santa Lucía, cerca de donde fui creado había una hermosa sensación de armonía, de verlo desde el exterior colocado dentro del paisaje, de sentarse dentro de él y ver la luz del sol difundida a través del tejido de color. Para ver los colores destilados del entorno sentado dentro del entorno.

Por ahora el domo se sentará aquí, junto al río Barbate. Desde aquí se moverá para sentarse dentro de los diferentes ambientes de La Janda. Para habitar el paisaje del que fue creada.

Gracias a la Consejería de Cultura y Patrimonio Histórico de la Junta de Andalucía por la financiación que permitió la creación de esta obra.

Photos by Pol Parrhesia

(Im)Perfection

By Botanical Dye, Ecology, Experiments, Process

The creation of the geodome for Sueños Botánicos meant quite a lot of leftover material from the off cuts as I formed triangles. I dreamed up the dome as a place to sleep, to contemplate our relationship with plants, to the world around us whilst cocooned inside plant colours. A patchwork quilt was then in some ways the obvious solution to make use of the waste.

I did not know how to thread the sewing machine without help before I started. * So thank you to my budding seamstress daughter and partner for their help. I also had no idea about how to make a quilt. I am amazed at what you can do with some YouTube tutorials. I wish I had the link to share but can’t retrace my internet steps. Darleen from America set me on an easy make triangles with two squares technique in a couple of minutes, for which I am eternally grateful.

I really enjoyed the process, the adventure. Finding solutions for problems of how to do various stages as I came across them. And also for the learning process and acceptance of imperfection. I like to be tidy and do things well. I have a bit of a perfectionist problem which leads to procrastination and paralysis. I embraced imperfection with this quilt. The points of the shapes do not meet. The thread is sometimes (often) tangled. I used different coloured threads because I was too impatient to wait until I could source the same coloured thread again. The material puckers in places. But I love it. I love that I created this beautiful tactile object. I love to wrap myself into it. I love that the imperfections are woven into it as part of a visible learning process.

La Janda

La Janda

By Birds, Ecology

We are on the look out for a short eared owl that has been seen recently in the area. We see lots of storks, cranes, spoonbills, glossy ibis, grey herons. A peregrine falcon, marsh harrier and black winged kite. We do not see the short eared owl. We follow tracks in the mud near the river which are perhaps fox? perhaps mongoose?

The most beautiful thing is the enthusiasm of the children, following the line of green bushes to the electricity post, to the left then down a bit to find the cranes amongst the storks with the binoculars.

Then in the dusk as we head home we see a fox. We all see it, in the grasses by the water channel, a bushy tailed and healthy adult fox, then it disappears into the darkness.

Circle of samples dyed with cochineal

Cochineal

By Ecology, Experiments

I was not interested in making colour with anything other than plants.

I was aware of cochineal and its history. I have seen the chumbera prickly pears cacti wither succumbing to their insect parasite. I have marveled at the cochineal insects in my garden, I initially thought them to be a strange fungi.

I read about cochineal as I investigated the history of colour. The source of bright pinks, reds and organges from Mexico that were traded throughout the world. Both the cochineal and their cacti host are considered invasive species here in Andalucia. Initially this had surprised me, the chumbera seemed so ubiquitous and settled in the landscape. I am learning, I am also not autochthonous.

I am not interested in making colour with anything other than plants. Then a neighbour cuts an infected cactus and I find myself with cochineal and curiosity.

Small bottles of ink made from plants and samples of the colours on strips of paper

Mapeo botánico

By Art, Botanical Dye, Workshop

Covid changed all of our plans.

I had been preparing my plant based ink experiments for an exhibition that suddenly disappeared. Adapting to new circumstances I take the ideas of the exhibition into the classroom. After a covid test. And after making individual bottles of ink for each student so that they can maintain social distance.

The preparation is laborious but I am happy that the children get the chance to play a little with the inks and modifiers. One of the classes takes place via Zoom, the materials having been sent a week earlier to quarantine in the school. This is a lot of work for the teachers who are present. I remain an entity on a screen attempting to guide the activity.

You can see photos and a write up (in Spanish) of one of the workshops here on the web page of the project BARBA-T: