Spring Greens: Botanically Printed Silk Twill Scarf Wrap

Description

Spring Greens is a medium-weight pure silk scarf with hand-rolled hems which I printed with leaves and flowers and dyed with locally sourced common reeds. Firstly I dyed the scarf this beautiful fresh spring green colour, and then I printed it with walnut, japanese acers, macleaya cordata (plume poppy), whitebeam, cercis (forest pansy), cranesbill, plum, cotinus, liquidamber, ice fig, sorbus, sweet chestnut, alongside fennel seed heads, and dyers’ coreopsis flowers. Gold, Copper and Bronze colours feature on this richly coloured scarf with accents of grey pearl.

“Nature’s first green is gold.” Robert Frost

“When the green woods laugh with the voice of joy, And the dimpling stream runs laughing by; When the air does laugh with our merry wit, And the green hill laughs with the noise of it.” William Blake

Measurements: 148cm x 40cm

Silk Twill

One of the great benefits of silk twill is that it has a wonderful drape and excellent durability for it’s weight. The very famous and prestigious Hermes of Paris silk scarves are mostly made out of the silk twill fabric.

My Process:
Natural dyeing requires very careful preparation of the fabric, to remove anything leftover from the manufacturing process, and to then treat it so that the dye colour will be long lasting. I use some powdered dye extracts as well as dyes from my own dye garden and surrounding plants. i regularly forage for leaves on my walks and from my own garden plants which I’ve selected for their printing properties. My mental map of my local area is formed around the trees and plants I have come to know and love, whether in car park, on a roundabout, deep in the forest, or outside the local scout hut! Fabric and leaves together are steamed for one to two hours to extract the pigments from the leaves and flowers leaving their beautifully detailed shapes and veining immortalised in the fabric.

Naturally dyed fabrics will fade when exposed to strong sunlight so to keep the colours bright, it is best to store your scarf somewhere away from direct light.

The colours are also best preserved by using a natural soap for washing, certainly don’t use anything that involves chemical ‘brighteners’.

Hand wash or gentle machine wash, then iron whilst still damp for best results.