Seeds, shoots and leaves: How eco-printing brings fabric to life

Carlow artist Nicola Brown is showing her wares at National Crafts & Design Fair in RDS

If you're planning a visit to the National Crafts & Design Fair at Dublin's RDS this weekend, then keep an eye out for the work of Nicola Brown.

This Carlow-based artist creates exquisite hand-printed textiles using a technique known as eco-printing or “nature-printing”, where freshly harvested plant material is used as a sort of natural “printing plate”.

At it’s simplest, it’s a surprisingly straightforward process that allows the shape of individual leaves/seed pods – as well as any natural plant dyes contained within them – to be successfully transposed onto cloth by placing them on a suitable material (wool, silk and felt) which is then carefully folded, bundled and boiled in water for several hours.

But the real art lies in the way that the plant material is arranged and combined on the fabric to create complex patterns and textures, as well as in a deep understanding of the many variables that can affect the final result.

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It was her friend, the Hong Kong-based textile artist Terriea Kwong who first introduced Brown to the technique, which is also used by well-known textile artists India Flint (Brown highly recommends her book Eco Colour) and Irit Dulman.

Eureka moment

It turned out to be a eureka moment for Brown, who’s now known for the exquisitely patterned wall-hangings, cushion covers, tunics, throws, stoles and scarves she creates – using plant material harvested from her garden and/or in the wild.

Some of Brown’s favourite eco-printing materials include the leaves of trees – oak, alder, maple and eucalyptus – that grow in the woodland she’s planted around her old farmhouse in Clasheen near Borris.

Others include the leaves of raspberries and blackberries, as well as the fleshy, outer “scales” of onions.

Weeds are another much-valued resource.

“I’ve just discovered that the long, slender seedpods of rosebay [Epilobium angustifolium, a native perennial plant that many gardeners resent for its invasive tendencies] produces these lovely, strong, graphic lines that are dark-purple in colour.

“It looks marvellous used in combination with the oval leaves of the smoke-bush (Cotinus).”

Strikingly beautiful

Ground elder is another of her favourite printing materials, both for the elegant shape of its trifoliate leaves, as well as the pale green colour that they leave on fabrics.

So is Japanese knotweed, which Brown prizes for its large, almost heart-shaped foliage, resulting in an eco-print that’s strikingly beautiful both in terms of its form as well as its subtle, yellow-green hues.

For more details of Brown’s work, or to book a place on one of her upcoming, fine art textile workshops, visit nicolabrown.ie