Wrapping the 4 Trees Again

Arbutus


Maple

Douglas-fir

Cedar

Decisions Decisions

Throughout this term of my studies I had continued to move along about 8 other dialogues out in the forest that I had established during the previous term. By the end of the winter term I decided my final degree exhibition would be about the tree cloths - a big decisions when I still had so much to resolve. This meant I needed to wrap another set of cloths around the trees and I needed to do it now to give the trees as much time as possible to get busy staining the cloth.

I liked the idea of pre-mordanting the cloth in sea water just a short distance away from where the trees are growing. Sampling had shown sea water to be an effective pre-mordant on cotton. A pre- mordant was likely to stimulate the staining process.

I made another decision too. The cloths would be bed sheets my 3 children slept on while growing up. 

I liked the idea of using the same nurturing cloths being used to express my need to get to know these trees.   

An important part of my work is to use textiles with an accumulated history. During a research module I had written a paper looking at how different artists worked with the human imprint on cloth.
While I soaked the sheets in the sea, 2 men  threw a ball for their dog and watched me. When I walked back towards them they said, 'We have to ask. Art or science?' I said, 'both.'

Repair and Mending Tree Cloths

 

 

 

The obvious response was to repair and mend the holes and tears in the tree cloths. Mending techniques by their nature aim to be invisible so this would be a necessary but not obvious response. I needed to do something more to the tree cloths.

Adding My Staining to Tree Cloths

I am at the stage in my dialogue with the trees where it is my turn to respond. I need to make a mark reflecting the development of my relationship with these trees. I sampled dyeing with a Cedar branch  extraction but wasn't enamoured with the colour nor the overall even covering of the tree's marks. Next I sampled more textural dyed marks using Procion MX colours.

Successive randomly scrumpled immersions in various greens built up the colour complexity.

Results were OK but while I was spending hours in the kitchen (natural dyeing on stove top) and in my dye studio, I felt quite removed from the trees. I didn't know what the trees were doing. The dialogue had shifted to a monologue. I needed to find another way to respond to the trees.

Making My Mark on the Tree Cloths

After noticing Cedar stems left a print on cotton, I decided to make a dye with them. I collected windfall branches, cut them into small pieces....

...brought them to a boil, simmered for 2 hours then left the pot to cool overnight. I poured off the liquid as the 1st extraction and repeated the process twice more, making 2nd and 3rd extractions.

I dyed 2 sea-water, pre-mordanted cloths in the 1st extraction with a copper simultaneous-mordant. The cloth on the left had an ammonia post-mordant.

These 2 cloths had ash water pre-mordant with a copper simultaneous-mordant. The left hand cloth had an ammonia post-mordant. The results were a yellow-orange colour with the ammonia post-mordant shifting the colour more towards an orange. Interesting results but i wasn't enamoured with the colour. Even though the dye was made with material from the same tree that made the 1st stains, I couldn't see a connection between the two.

Eco-printing on Tree Cloths

After washing and ironing the eco-printed samples...

..i found them uninspiring.

 

This Cedar stem showed the most potential as a dye source.

I tore off pieces of the Cedar tree cloth and soaked them in a number of different pre-mordants,
sea water...

... almond milk and ash water. Each sample was coded with the different combinations of pre-mordants it had been soaked in. Sample cloths were left to dry slowly, outside on rocks in the garden.

My Turn to Respond

The tree cloths were inside, now it was my turn to respond in this ongoing dialogue. Perhaps I could add more marks on the cloths using materials from each tree. I needed to test each tree's dye/stain potential so used India Flint's eco-printing technique of tightly wrapping material with cloth and steaming it.

Maple leaves left marks.

As did Arbutus.

Cedar

Douglas-fir

Tree Cloths Removed

In March 2011, after 14 months, I took the tree cloths off the trees, laid them on the grass to dry then brought them inside. They were washed and ironed.

Were these domestic activities to be my response in the dialogue?

Each tree made distinctively different marks. 

I left the cloths up on the wall for quite a while, not sure how I was going to continue the dialogue.

What did I want to say?

My tutor advised me it was time for more sampling.

Staining on Tree Cloths

By November 1st snow and cooler temperatures slowed down the rate of staining on the tree cloths.

In the darkness under the Cedar tree its cloth stayed wet and had decayed more rapidly than the others.

By November the Cedar tree cloth was in a fragile state.

over the summer and fall I had continued with other dialogues within the  Douglas-fir ecosystem. I laid a piece of cloth on the ground and left the leaves and debris fall on it. Each week I would uncover a corner, cut off a piece and bring it inside.

On windy days I tied a brush to a branch and held a framed cloth up for the tree to draw on.

Most of these dialogues suggested ideas I could take further but it was the tree cloths I decided to focus on for my BA(Hons) studies.