I am a botanical colourist and Earth artist exploring traditional techniques, who seeks colour from nature's pallet by collaborating with Papatūānuku, Mother Earth. My work captures the art and alchemy of working with nature and not against it. Every step is slowly crafted by hand in my studio, where my botanical palettes are hand mixed from flowers, roots, foliage, nuts, and food waste to wood. Plant-based dyes create stunning colours that shift, change and come alive in natural sunlight. This ancient slow craft creates a stunning depth of natural colour unachievable with any synthetic chemical dyes.
My botanical hand-dyed art and natural fabrics are inspired by and infused with nature. Nature is perfectly imperfect and unpredictable with no two dye baths the same. As the botanical dye interacts with the fabric, unique markings and colour variations occur—a process just like nature itself, which should be celebrated. This makes each a slow-crafted, individual piece of art.