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skirtofleaves

Hey all, I’m teaching two botanical printing wor

Hey all, I’m teaching two botanical printing workshops this week, which are the last ones of the season❣️🌿🌼🌈

This Wednesday the 27th + Friday the 29th at Pumpkin Vine Family Farm in Somerville.

There are three spots left in Wednesday’s class, and possibly one spot left on Friday. If you get inspired to join us, let me know!

More details in the linky-🔗

#maineartist #ecoprinting #naturaldyes #naturaldyersofinstagram

Colors of September in the garden 🌿🌻🏵️

Colors of September in the garden 🌿🌻🏵️

So many dye flowers. And Johnny’s dahlias are having their moment!

We’re also having an extra abundant veggie harvest this year because of All The Rain. 💦
It’s def the #yearoftheslug

#septemberinthegarden #dyeplants #dyegarden #maineinseptember #dahliaseason

We headed to the to coast to escape the heat and c

We headed to the to coast to escape the heat and collect seaweed for our garden 🦪🦀🐚

‘Twas a magical, mystical, foggy day on the water. And eerily still and quiet.

The kind of day you’d expect to see a ghost ship appearing out of the mist, or a Selkie swim up to the shore. 🧜🏽‍♀️ Like a portal moment into other dimensions…

Our jaws dropped open when the wind picked up and the fog suddenly cleared, and the island right across the way all of a sudden appeared like some huge dark ship - it was startling!

I sent some of these photos to a friend and she said proclaimed that “the world just exhaled a poem.”

Indeed. Of sounds and colors and textures and smells and feelings….

🐚🌌✨

Also I continue to think of Lahaina all the time. Sending love to the ocean there… and her land & fresh waters & people 💙

#septemberinmaine #seaweedmulch #seaweedmaine #wildroses #rosehips #naturalcolor #soundsofthesea #aweandwonder #malamatheaina #westmauiwaters

Some of the results from the eco printing workshop

Woke up again this morning to the weight of what i

Woke up again this morning to the weight of what is happening in Lahaina and west Maui… that familiar feeling in times of grief when it feels like a terrible dream, but then the reality hits you that it’s really happening in waking life.

So many memories coming up. I first went to Maui 20 years ago and was utterly changed by the people, the land, the ocean…they all shaped who I am now & are still very much alive in me.

So much could be said about all of this, and about the movement for Hawaiian Sovereignty and the political/cultural/spiritual aspects of it all, and there are so many thoughts and feelings swirling around inside of me in this moment…

For now, just breathing and sending love and prayers to my old friends and all the people and the land and the beautiful waters of the mountains and ocean 🌈

~~
'ua mau ke ea o ka ʻāina i ka pono' is widely translated as “the life of the land is perpetuated in righteousness.” (sung so beautifully in this song by Bruddah Iz 💔)

These words attributed to King Kamehameha III have been co-opted as the state motto under American colonial governance. (Ironically he is said to have stated this after Hawaii regained its independence from Britain).

But the words don’t translate exactly of course, and there aren’t the same words and understandings in the English language to adequately get across the nuances and deeper meanings.

Aina, “land,” is “that which feeds, that which gives life.”
Pono is something that is truly, deeply good and life-supporting.
Ea is life / breath. Some people say that in the context in which he said that it also meant sovereignty. But especially sovereignty of the land.

So perhaps, said another way: the life breath of the land in its own sovereignty, being its natural self (and humans are inextricably part of the land, not at all separate) is good and life-giving and just.

I just looked up some of these meanings online and I’m obviously not the best to speak on this…any Hawaiian language speakers out there?

#malamatheaina #mauistrong #lahainastrong #hawaiiansovereignty #uamaukeeaokaʻāinaikapono

Workshop details! I’m happy to be offering a bot

Workshop details! I’m happy to be offering a botanical printing class on Friday, September 8th in Somerville ME 🌼🌿🏵️

Botanical printing, a.k.a. eco-printing, is a magical process of creating contact prints with flowers and leaves on cloth.

In my experience it’s a special way to connect with plants and infuse their colors and particular 🤌 into cloth.

We'll experiment with prints on linen, cotton, and silk fabrics that I’ve pre-prepared with dye fixatives (called mordants).

You’ll come away with five types of fabric samples, plus a printed silk scarf or bandana (your choice), as well as a solid skill base for creating prints at home.

$95 includes materials

10am - 3pm at Pumpkin Vine Family Farm 🐐🌿🐐

Let me know if you’d like to come!

It’s so fun even the goats want to get into it!

**Actually, the 4th slide is from our friends at @pumpkinvinefamilyfarm from their Goat Pageant and Dairy Queen crowning event, happening on their rain date, next Sunday, 8/20:
A celebration of the generosity of their amazing herd of dairy goats.
Johnny and I will be there helping to shepherd our goat friends onto the stage. Maybe we’ll see you there 😊

🍃🏵️🌿🌼🌿🌸🍃

#mainecraft #ecoprinting #botanicalprintinganddyeing #naturaldyeing #slowtextiles

I’m excited to announce that I just published th

I’m excited to announce that I just published the first piece of writing on my new blog called ‘Unfurling.’ 🌿

It’s about
🌱the current season of my creative life
🌊 my commitment to really showing up through my art
✨ and an intro to some of the magic behind the name A Skirt of Leaves

The meaning of a “skirt of leaves” continues to reveal itself to me in all of its depth and layers, surprising me with how well it serves as a container for my approach to making textiles, as well as my deeper hopes and longings for how I want to show up in this world.

It speaks to the foundations of what I’m most passionate about and why I want to create beauty in the form of naturally dyed textiles.

What is a skirt of leaves?

So many beautiful things.

Link in bi0 🥰

📷 by John Affleck

Apparently this is the year of dyer’s coreopsis!

Apparently this is the year of dyer’s coreopsis! I just had my first big flower harvest yesterday evening before the rains came…so many more flowers on the way.

+ a few more botanical print pics 🏵️🌼🌸

I’m working on my first email newsletter, which I plan to send out this coming Monday - woo hoo!

It will include details on the botanical printing class I’m offering next month.

I’m going to be sending out occasional emails about workshop and textile offerings, as well as my (soon-to-be!) blog posts.

There’s a newsletter sign-up link on my website if you’re interested. Of course I’ll also post updates here on IG. 🧶🌼🐝

Co-creating some beauty with dye flowers from the

Co-creating some beauty with dye flowers from the garden 🐝🌼🌸🏵️🐝

…accompanied by the beloved Natalia Lafourcade (who’s been on nonstop perma-rotation on my playlist for the past year 🎶🥰💐💃🏻)

Botanical printing is a magical process of infusing plant dyes into cloth. Here I’m printing onto two types of silk fabrics…I love the glow and warmth of these plant dyes on silk fibers ✨

Plant-based fibers like cotton and linen also take the dyes well when prepared correctly, especially from tannin-rich sources like tree leaves. For all fibers, the fabric need to be pre-prepped with fixatives to receive the dyes.

I’m psyched to be hosting a group here for a botanical printing workshop later this month.

I’ll also be opening up a second date for anyone else here in midcoast Maine who may want to join….more details on that coming soon!

Flower garden + Johnny appreciation post. 💗 Som

Flower garden + Johnny appreciation post. 💗 Some of the beauty he’s been tending.

Scroll all the way over for our first sighting of a bird balancing on Johnny’s rock tower. This bluebird didn’t tip the balance, amazingly. 😂

The Armenian basket flower (second photo) was gifted to me a couple of years ago...latin name = centaurea macrocephala (great headed centaur!). Native to the Caucasus and what is now known as Turkey…I’m very curious to learn more of her story.

Pootycat models one of my weaving samples from the

Pootycat models one of my weaving samples from the week 😽

I’ve been experimenting with color gradients, yarn combinations, and ends per inch. Gleaned a few discoveries in the process, which I’ll be bringing into this week’s special weaving commission. ✡️

One of my aims is to showcase the beautiful colors and fibers of the warp yarn to their fullest glory. I feel happy with the results achieved by using many ends per inch and a very fine weft yarn.

I also have a LOT to learn about color and gradients…the complexity of color is awe inspiring.

Diving into yarn prep and dye pots this weekend! Here we gooo…🎨🌈🧶✨

#naturaldyeing #handweaving #handweaversofinstagram #weavingwithnaturaldyes #slowtextiles #meaningfulcloth

Silence and solitude and evening light streaming t

Silence and solitude and evening light streaming through windows and gentle stirring of silk-wool yarn in the mordant bath is where it’s at ✨🌅🌑

(This is a sample warp for a very special weaving commission 💗)

#naturaldyeing #slowtextiles #slowliving #weavingalife #creativeprocess #newmoonintaurus #weavingwithnaturalcolor

Hi, folks 🌱 Sharing my first post in a good lon

Hi, folks 🌱 Sharing my first post in a good long while...

This season has been a restful time for me creatively, dreaming and quietly observing the creative spark within me rumble underground, subtly but unmistakably. And I'm feeling the sap within me rising once again as I look towards Spring and new outward motions... yip!

Last Fall I was inspired to start reading novels again. I discovered that while I haven’t had much time to sit down to read these days, I am loving being in the company of spoken novels while going about my chores, cooking, weaving, etc.

I just finished listening to an astoundingly brilliant novel called The Hummingbird's Daughter by Luis Alberto Urrea. The audiobook version is narrated by the author himself, which in my opinion takes the experience of this story over the top! It's just. so. good.

I wept, laughed out loud a lot, and felt deeply connected to the story and its characters. The dialogues are often hilarious, and the story itself is magical, tragic, gritty, hopeful, and deeply inspiring (as all good, real stories are). Plus it has lots of good cursing in Spanish, which is satisfying, lol.

The Hummingbird's Daughter is closely based on the true story of a remarkable human (and the author's own ancestral relative), Teresa Urrea, who was a healer, mystic, and political activist from Sinaloa and Sonora Mexico in the time of the Mexican Revolution.

Known by some as the “Mexican Joan of Arc,” she became a folk hero and a saintly figure for the people, while living a life of service with a clear and unwavering commitment to the work she was destined to do.

Teresita, as she was lovingly called, became so influential and beloved by so many (thousands making the pilgrimage to her home to kiss her hands, hear her speak her beautiful but at-the-time-subversive message, and to seek out her miraculous gifts of healing) that dictator Porfirio Díaz proclaimed her to be "the most dangerous woman in Mexico.”

Thank you Luis Alberto Urrea for this masterpiece of storytelling.

Teresita still lives on in the hearts of so many people in Méjico, and now in mine, too.
Long live the Saint of Cabora!
¡Viva la Santa de Cábora!

Hi, folks! Here are some photos of one of my finis

Hi, folks! Here are some photos of one of my finished pieces from this fall 🧶🍁🎨
A hand-dyed and handwoven alpaca-silk ruana-style wrap!

This was one of several pieces I displayed of my naturally-dyed weaving alongside the work of nine talented ceramic and fiber artists at the Maine CAP exhibition.

I painted the 100% silk part of the warp with natural dyes to achieve subtle variations in color. I’m digging the glow and shimmer of the silk 🤩

I dyed the alpaca/silk yarn brown with black walnut hulls I had on hand from last year. Love those warm, honey-brown hues of black walnut. 🤎

I wove two pieces of equal length and seamed them up the back, leaving the front open. Finished the ends with twisted fringe.

This wrap can be worn with both sides hanging down in the front, or with one side draped over a shoulder for a glamorous look. 😉

#handweaving #handweaversofinstagram #slowtextiles #naturaldyeing #handwovenclothing #blackwalnut #naturaldyersofinstagram #mainecap2022

Well, it’s a wrap! We finished out the Craft App

Well, it’s a wrap! We finished out the Craft Apprentice Program with a bang (with handwoven, hand-dyed garments that were labors of love—and two really good cocktails! 🍸🍹🥳).

Thank you so much, Alice, for the mentorship and collaboration throughout the year. It was an incredibly fun, motivating, and growth-filled experience.

#mainecap #mainecap2022 #mainecraftsassociation

Hi, folks! I’m back after a break from posting

Hi, folks! I’m back after a break from posting on social media at the end of a very busy summer and fall season… sitting on a bunch of photos of my recent projects that I’m excited to share with you all. ☺️

I wrapped up the Maine Craft Apprentice program earlier this fall, which culminated in the capstone exhibition reception @watershedceramics. Was such a fun and inspiring evening to see everyone’s work!

Here are some of the photos from the event - all by David Dostie.

#mainecap #mainecraftsassociation #mainecap2022 #mainecraft

Happy Fall, y’all❣️🍁🍂 I haven’t post

Happy Fall, y’all❣️🍁🍂
I haven’t posted in a little while now - been busy dyeing and weaving and getting pieces ready for the Maine CAP art show, which opens next Friday, a week from today!

Sharing some process photos from a naturally-dyed ruana-style wrap that I wove using hand painted silk and walnut-dyed silk/alpaca blend yarn.

I played up on the subtle color variations in the painted silk by incorporating some long floats in the stripe pattern. The way the fabric shines is pretty special 🥰
(scroll through for a clip of that)

I’ll be showing this piece and a few others at the Maine Craft Capstone Exhibition, which caps off our 7-month Craft Apprentice Program.

My weaving mentor Alice Seeger has made a gorgeous handwoven jacket for the show using painted silk woven on a 24 harness dobby loom. 🤩

The opening night is next Friday, Sept 30th @ 5pm at the Watershed Center for Ceramic Arts in Edgecomb.

There will be five mentor-apprentice duos showing their fiber and ceramic work. We’d love to see you there!

#mainecap2022
#craftapprenticeprogram2022 #weaversofintagram #naturaldyeing #slowtextiles #madderroot #slowfashion #blackwalnutdye #naturalfibers

Sharing some process photos from the creation of m

Sharing some process photos from the creation of my wedding shawl five years ago 💙

This shawl inspired me to start weaving! Making it was an absolute joy, interwoven with moments of magic and synchronicity. I love how the experience of what my mom likes to call “God winks” tells us that we’re on the right track. 😉

Wanting to use elegant old-time methods as much as I could, I spun really fine single-ply weft yarn from tussah silk on a hand spindle. I chose Jaggerspun silk-wool yarn for the warp. I dyed both of these yarns in a fermentation indigo vat, setting an “old sig” type vat that J helped me “collect.”

(Ha. The vat consists of just stale pee and indigo. It was VERY stinky but the smell on the yarn went away quickly!). Such a simple and ingenious way to create a reduction vat of indigo. Not everyone’s definition of “elegant,” but it fits mine! ☺️)

I went back to the Marshfield School of Weaving, where I’d taken an indigo + madder dye class the year before. Kate and Dosia led me through every step of weaving on an old barn loom. Needless to say, I fell in love. My hands felt right at home.

My time at Marshfield was a mini retreat, an enormous gift for my wedding-prep-weary mind, body & spirit. The evening I arrived, I fell asleep at 7pm and slept like a rock under handwoven bedding for 12 hours. Every day I was there fed my soul in deep and delicious ways.

I got to connect with Norman Kennedy, the founder of the school, who had captivated me years before with his particular approach to fiber art. I’d found one of his instructional videos on spinning wool, and literally whooped with delight through the whole thing - he has a great love for old-time hand work, histories, language, and song.

I randomly ran into a friend at the studio who’d driven 4 hours one way to pick up an antique chair with newly handwoven and embossed fabric as a surprise gift for his hubby for their 1700s farmhouse in CT. He took this photo of me at the loom 💙

A big thanks to Kate Smith, the owner (and heart!) of the school, who is an amazingly knowledgeable weaver and teacher.

I love that my wedding shawl helped begin this love affair with weaving cloth.

Last Friday, J and I celebrated our 5th wedding an

Last Friday, J and I celebrated our 5th wedding anniversary❣️💐🌻🥂✨

The magic that was conceived during that time continues to sprout and bear fruit in seen and unseen ways…

For one—I was inspired to create my wedding shawl, which was my very first weaving project. I’ll share another post about that soon!

Our wedding day was epic, and I love revisiting those moments and the feelings of elation, love, and immense gratitude. We were subsisting on endorphins by the time that weekend rolled around, and we rode that high for weeks afterwards (as we caught up on things like sleeping and eating - two things we didn’t do nearly enough of in the lead up to that time!).

We were held up by family and friends near and far, and I’ll forever feel a huge debt of gratitude for the love and support—it meant more to us than anyone knows.

We had already been together for a long time, and we decided to host a ceremony and party for reasons bigger than ourselves (and honestly part of me was terrified by the idea of a “big” wedding). But it ended up being an important passage into a new phase of ourselves and our lives. To be “seen” in that way by our loved ones, to speak of our love for one another aloud, and to consecrate and celebrate our union with our community was just what was needed. I hope that the world was fed by our prayers and the intentional beauty we sowed, too. ♥️

Photos by @alexisoltmer, J. Affleck, A. Lucas

#weddingshawl #diywedding #handweaving #slowtextiles #handweaversofinstagram #indigodye

Today’s flower harvest 🌼🌺🏵🌸 Dyer’

Today’s flower harvest 🌼🌺🏵🌸

Dyer’s coreopsis, sunrise coreopsis, dyer’s chamomile, marigold, and cosmos. The bees were working hard and reveling in the pollen harvest… gotta leave plenty flowers for them 💓

Also simmered some sumac leaves to make a tannin mordant for cotton and linen fabric, which is in the dye pot right now. Dye season is full ON! I’m in my happy place.

The sumac berries were ready too, so I picked some for our winter tea stash. A bright, citrusy, delicious winter treat.

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