journal – Page 2 – Wool and Nature

Medicinal Plants Quilt

march 2024

The winter months have come and gone. I can’t believe that we are welcoming spring equinox soon. It is a beautiful day here in the South of France. Still cold but the sun shines all day and to be given these extra hours in the day is so welcome after a long winter. I have been taken advantage of the longer days and had many beautiful walks.

I wanted to share a little bit with you about the medicinal plants quilt I made this winter. The idea of this quilt design was born when the world around our little hamlet was still very cold with moody skies. I was inspired by a little medicinal plants book that I once found in a second hand book shop. I selected medicinal plants that were either familiar to my surroundings or that I felt intuitively connected to. And so I started this journey with drawing up these medicinal plants, dreaming about the colours that would compliment the illustrations. I felt that I wanted to use different shades of earth tones in one plant, and I couldn’t be more happy how these botanical illustrations came out of the dye pot.

Wishing you a lovely spring.

x Claire

Indigo Dreams

september 2022

I love September! The change of light cast over the mountains, thunderstorms and rain. The burnt colours of the forests around us. With cooler nights and mornings, the sun is still warm during the day. This morning, I took a walk with our dog Orangina to the top of the mountain to watch the sun come up.

I wanted to share with you the work of my hands and heart from the past couple of weeks of my life. I felt so inspired by the wonderous indigo and making this quilt. This indigo quilt was on my mind all the time, even in my dreams. Excited to get up early in the morning to work on this amazing project.

Indigo is one of my favourite dyes to work with and at the same time the dye process frightens me a bit. Very earthy with a touch of magic. I had to let it just go and fully enjoy watching the magic before my eyes. And those beautiful deep hues that come out of the vat. Look at those shades of blue!

I pieced every part of this quilt together, each part tells it’s own story. I started with some small ideas, firstly painting the mixed media birds. And from there I let the illustrations for the other parts come intuitively to me. My inspiration comes from my life, from exploring my home here in the mountains, walking our dog in the ancient forests. A bird on a tree branch. Some wild flowers. Our summer garden. The night sky. I love where we live, and how nature that surrounds our home continues to inspire me. I want to express that in my work.

x Claire

Quilted Summer Days

august 2022

This morning, we woke up to the sound of rain and thunder. The windows in the bedroom were wide open and the cold breeze woke me up fresh and early. We have been waiting for this rain for a very long time.

It has been so hot over the last few weeks that it has been difficult for me to get a lot of work done. I always feel a bit guilty about that, and I am not quite sure why. Maybe it is an artists thing, there are always so many new ideas and projects on my mind that it is difficult for me to unwind. So one early morning I went to the river because I know it helps me to relax. The water was cold, the chill awakend me and my mind felt fresh again.

In the studio I started on a new quilt design. I loved making the smaller quilts, and now I am challenging myself by making a large quilt. The first design ideas for this new quilt were drawn in my sketchbook, ready to be painted onto linen. The only direction I gave myself was dyeing with indigo, and the rest I leave intentionally open. In my minds eye I try to see the indigo dyed quilt, but not for too long. Otherwise it will keep me from being free and fearless.

The next step in the process is to take different parts of the small sketches and turn them into one true to size illustration. I always leave this paper version of the quilt either on the floor or hang it on the wall, just to look at it while I do other things in the studio. It helps me to really see what is in front of me, if there is something missing or that I should change elements of the design. This process can sometimes take weeks.

I am so excited to start with the painting and indigo dyeing of this quilt! I love the rich possibilites of the soft medium of linen, painted, dipped in indigo and stitched into something new. I am so drawn to the colour and texture, the flowing process of natural dyeing. I hope to show you more about the process in the coming weeks!

Well, that’s a little glimpse at the past few weeks of my life. I hope you are all well in every way, and that you enjoyed the summer so far. More soon and all love from the South of France!

x Claire

Dyeing with Saint-John's-Wort

august 2022

With the sun high in the sky, I love to take my dog deep into the woods to cool off a bit. I like to sit against one of the ancient chestnut trees and let the wind blow through my hair while listening to the soft sounds in the forest. The sun peeks through the leaves of the trees, but that doesn’t matter because the with moss covered stones and cool earth give me comfort. When I walk down from the mountains, I walk through fields of wild flowers. The flowers of Saint-John’s-Wort are easy to recognise with their happy yellow coloured flowers shining bright like the summer sun.

The flowers of the Saint-John’s-Wort produce green, red and yellow shades, and can be used fresh or dried. For this dye adventure I used fresh cut flowers and let them simmer until the dye liquid was deep red. I strained off the dye liquid, added the linen fabric and let it simmer until the dye bath gave the linen a beautiful shade of golden yellow.

I usually dye only with linen but sometimes I can get my hands on some local wool and dye a skein or two for small knitting projects. For a green colour I add a mordanted wool skein to the dye bath and let it simmer for about 15 minutes. Deep earthy red colours are achieved by simmering unmordanted wool skeins for about an hour in the dye bath.

Wishing you a lovely summer and happy dyeing!

x Claire

Dyeing with Fern

december 2021

I cannot believe that it has been only a couple of weeks ago that we were having our first freezes. When I look outside my window now, I see white covered mountain tops while a cold wind blows through our little hamlet.

Right before this first frost late Fall, I got up one day and walked into the forest to gather some fern for dyeing. The weather was still warm enough to walk outside wearing my beloved hand knitted sweaters to keep me warm and cosy. There is this seclusive space in the forest of ancient trees where mountain water from high up forms a little bassin. I knew I had to go there to gather fern for my dye experiments.

The outcome of my dyeing was positively succesful and I thought I’d share the process with you now, should you like to dye with this plant too. The best time of year to pick fronds is from spring to fall. You can use them both fresh or dry.
That day I gathered quiet some fronds, using only fresh ones for this particular dye pot. The rest I hung up to dry for later dye experiments.

First I cut up the fronds into smaller pieces to fit into my dye pot and simmered them for about 30 minutes to an hour. I strained off the dye liquid, added the linen fabric and let it simmer until the dye bath gave the linen a shade of golden yellow. Because I wanted this colour more muted I dipped the fabric in an iron after bath. The taupe colour turned out beautifully and was exactly what I was hoping for! When I sew this design into a project bag I added an indigo dyed border and cotton cord to compliment the beautiful colour this primitive plant gave.

Happy dyeing dear friends!

x Claire

Botanical Embroidery

june 2021

Hello, and thank you for being here with me. I have a lot of embroidery on my mind! I love how everything came together in these little herb sachets. The fabric is dyed with walnuts from our walnut trees, the wool I embroidered with is from local farms and is dyed with natural dyes. The sachets are filled with lavender and sage from our garden and rose petals I foraged in the forest. They are a true labor of love and my modest tribute to the beautiful nature that surrounds us here in the mountains.

I have also made a limited edition botanical embroidery kits available including 6 of my favorite colours and three templates so that you can do some embroidery yourself. You can make your own little sachets or embroider a flower or little bird on your summer dress.

You can find the sachets and embroidery kit in my little summer shop.

x Claire