“My colourful hīkoi”

“Let’s start at the very beginning, a very good place to start…”

I have wanted to write a blog post for a while but never really knew where to start so let’s start at the beginning! I started natural dyeing about 5 years ago now and never expected it to lead me down this path. I never dreamed it would lead me to have my own studio space or to create my art again.

I have loved colour for as long as I can remember and have always been fascinated with its use. I have always enjoyed exploring different ways to use it, from clothing to art. I was the girl who used to pick flowers and rub them on paper to see their colours come alive, the one who use to chuck coloured wax on my artwork to try and get a more interesting optic of colour. Now I realise this was all a precursor to my natural dye hīkoi.

The alchemy of natural dyes creates an extraordinary range of layered colours. Each colour is a gift from Papatūānuku and nature and is alive with its own special character! The more I study and experiment with plants and their colours the more I am amazed by nature and its alchemy.

I wanted to keep my dyeing as a sustainable and closed circle as possible so I have lovingly created an ever-expanding dye garden over the years and try to grow as much of my dye material as possible. There is something very grounding in growing and then dyeing with homegrown plants, it creates a personal connection to the colours I create and the place where the colours come from. I am not the greenest of fingers so this has been a big learning curve and a labour of love.

I started this hīkoi with hope, eagerness and trepidation. A yearning to understand, connect and collaborate with nature in a meaningful way.

Dyeing in my studio space

“I wanted a career that was in tune with my passion to create, so I crafted art that spoke to my soul.”