Nature's Palette
When Eurovision came to Liverpool!
I conceived this project as celebration of the diversity represented at Eurovision represented by the incredible bio-diversity of the national flowers, some official, some informal. A great variety of flowers have been created, from delicate roses (for the UK and the Czech Republic) to bold sunflowers (for Ukraine).
The project also highlights natural colour. All my dyes and stains are made from readily available plants and vegetables. My favourite dye plant has to be onion - the range of colours achievable using onion skin is incredible (see the sunflowers). Each paper flower has been meticulously hand crafted, with every petal and detail carefully cut and shaped by hand.
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For more information about my dye-philosophy please visit Natural Colour.
Heath and Alpine
Classifying such a diverse collection of plants is not easy! Here are a selection of plants which can loosely be described as heathland and alpine plants, representing Scandinavian countries (Denmark, Sweden, Norway, Iceland, Finland) (and Serbia) as well as Austria and Switzerland. Although I'm not sure Marguerite fits the loose classification? Ah, Eurovision....
Heath and Alpine
Classifying such a diverse collection of plants is not easy! Here are a selection of plants which can loosely be described as heathland and alpine plants, representing Scandinavian countries (Denmark, Sweden, Norway, Iceland, Finland) (and Serbia) as well as Austria and Switzerland. Although I'm not sure Marguerite fits the loose classification? Ah, Eurovision....
Madder Rose
Trying another method of classification, here are the plants and flowers coloured with Madder, one of the 'trio of ancient' dye plants, which I have used in its dried form to get a wide range of reds and pinks.
Kitchen Colours
The yellows, greens, pinks, blues and lilacs in the following gallery have all been achieved by cooking up standard kitchen fare - onion skins, beetroot and red cabbage. I know these are fugitive colours - which is to say they will run away, fade, change - but so would the real plants. At least this way, the plants and flowers I create will keep their shape, even after the colours fade!
Strange and Wonderful
There were a few plants I had never seen (including Golden Wattle and the beautiful Bee Orchid, and plants I would not have pictured making - Baltic Rue, which I have made at a larger scale than nature (nature does not permit my fingers to recreate at scale!) - well, it is truly a strange and wonderful looking little flower. Strange and beautiful.