My year so far has been mainly in the print studio developing colour stories selected from a few of the many hundreds of colours I've documented over the past 5 years (hurray!!!). I feel so excited about the latest development in this journey that's gone from flora/fauna, to colour, to sketch, and now lastly to print. A body of work informed by the colours I've collected and noted from the North Devon landscape, my garden, other peoples gardens! Every colour reminding me of times past, people I've loved and days out and about with our lovely dogs.
Here are the first two colour stories...
The first colour story is from my daily walk with Luna. Brambles, ferns and perturbed pheasants as I scramble through the banks looking for her!
Once I had decided on the colours, they were then developed and recorded as Reactive Dye recipes so that I will be able to re-produce the colours over and over. This takes time, carefully adjusting the dyes and colour balance, allowing for the underlying grey tone of the natural linen, until I'm completely happy with the colour and feel its the best that can be achieved.
The second colour story is from the sand dunes. Club Rush, Marram Grass and Magpie feathers, all from the extensive dune systems in North Devon. Subtle, sandy, coastal. Working from the principle that the colours from the landscape will be as harmonious and uplifting to look at and live with inside as they are out.
I may mix and match these colours i.e. not only work with them in their individual colour stories, but the really important thing is - that the colours above are now translated into dye recipes and therefore onto my textiles!!
I'm recently using Instagram to show more of my print and product developments, find me @sampickard_textiles
