Slow Lane Studio forages, cultivates and uses plants to create colour for textiles, paper, printmaking and pigments.
Created from a desire to be more environmentally-aware, buy and consume fewer products and generate less waste, Jacqui Symons began exploring natural colour and dyes in 2018. She researched and developed the use of plant-based pigments for oil-based printmaking inks and from there expanded into making her own watercolours, pastels, inks, screenprinting pastes and dry powdered pigments from plant sources.
In 2019, Jacqui trained under Jenny Dean to learn about the use of natural dyes with textiles and yarns, drawing on Jenny’s 40 years of experience in this field to develop further knowledge and understanding of this increasingly relevant and valuable industry.
Jacqui created Slow Lane Studio to provide resources, information, practical advice and workshops focusing on natural dyeing, plant-based pigments and plant-based artist colours. Alongside working on creative projects and commissions, she is developing a pigment garden and a plant pigment library as a reference and resource for other artists.
The Dye Plant Series is a set of screenprints showcasing Jacqui’s drawings of dyeplants such as Indigo, Woad and Madder. The colour in each screenprint is produced directly from the plant shown with the black produced using charcoal from willow grown in the UK. In Madder (Rubia tinctorum), the red comes from the roots of the plant.
Blues are obtained from the leaves of Indigo (Persicaria tinctoria) and Woad (Isatis tinctoria). Woad has been grown and used as a dye in the UK for hundreds of years though there are many varieties of Indigo grown all over the world. In Weld (Reseda luteola) the yellow comes from the plant tops and flowers though a green can also be achieved by adding iron to the mix. Coreopsis (Coreopsis tinctoria) flowers produce a bright orange and Buckthorn (Rhamnus cathartica) creates strong yellows from both the berries and the bark of the plant.
The screenprinting paste used with the natural pigments to print these pieces is made from wheat starch rather than an acrylic base, which creates tiny particles of plastic in our water-system.
PLEASE CONTACT COMME CA ART DEALERS FOR ANY ENQUIRIES.
CLAIRE TURNER | claire@commecaart.com | T: +44 (0) 161 273 5495