Silk dyed with natural dyes ~ Lac, Brazilwood, Buckthorn and Cutch. Printed using Japanese Mokume (woodgrain) Shibori stitching technique.
Silk Mokume Shibori
Tag Archives: Mary Downe
Merino Wool~ Logwood Natural Dye
These very soft, lightweight, Merino Wool scarves have been dyed with Logwood Natural Dye. I’ve added a touch of Lac, also a natural dye, to give a bit more of a reddish, more intense purple. The patterns are created using Japanese Nui Shibori stitching techniques. Very labour intensive but I’m pleased with the results.
Continue readingMerino Wool ~ Natural Dyes
These Merino Wool scarves~ very warm, but lightweight~ have been dyed with Natural Dyes. The orange scarf is a combination of Weld and Brazilwood. The pink scarf is dyed with Cochineal.
Indigo with Weld & Myrobalan
The Linen Scarf has been dyed first with Weld natural dye and then dipped in Indigo. The Silk Scarf was dyed first with Myrobalan and then dipped into Indigo.
Hellebores
Oil Painting 18×24″
The Blue Vase
Image
In this painting of a bouquet of tulips I’m playing with the vibrancy and intensity of the colours in the painting and the flowing intricacy of the various forms….the bright pinks and reds of the soft, flowing forms of the tulips set against the intense blue, quite rigid, sculptural form of the vase, the dark green, very pointy, forms of the leaves and the softer green of the background.
The tulip in the centre is the obvious star of this drama~ the diva surrounded by the adoring corps de ballet.
Broken Flowers
The Broken Flower paintings are about memory- the way we remember selectively, forget, blot things out, remember again, but differently each time. Each surface has been reworked….. painted, layered, blurred, scraped away and painted again….. and again. The focus of these paintings is often on their edges. I wanted to refer to the way that memories often come at us indirectly, appearing at the edges of our conciousness. Sometimes seemingly unimportant details, only seen in our peripheral vision originally, become the main and most important part of a remembered event.
Bouquets
Two paintings from a series of paintings of Bouquets I’ve begun.
Midsummer Night Dress
My latest creation! The silk is from saris that I found several years ago in Calcutta, deconstructed, and then dyed with Indigo and Persimmon natural dyes. The Magnolia leaves are painted with fabric paint.
On display at Circle Craft on Granville Island, Vancouver, until the end of August 2017, as part of their 45th Anniversary Exhibition.
Transparent Silks
I love the ethereal, transparent qualities of these Indian silks.
I’ve used Indigo, Persimmon and Logwood natural dyes, followed by machine embroidery.
Hollyhocks
Hollyhocks, in bud, before they have bloomed.
Last year in early August I spent some time in the village of Caseneuve in the Luberon in southern France. Hollyhocks were growing everywhere, a riot, an exuberance of Hollyhocks (Rose Tremiere in french). They seem to have the ability to grow anywhere that there is the smallest bit of soil, amongst paving stones, beside houses, between broken bits of pavement.