Threefold 07
gathering leaves, printopia, and changing threads
Welcome to the Threefold Letter. This month, gathering practices, reflecting on Printopia, and the fibre arts 2024 Changing Threads awards.
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In the last days of April, the last days of autumn, as green yellow leaves drop from trees and crisp into brown, I am gathering the last leaves from deciduous trees in my family’s garden for printing with. From the female ginkgo, whose fat berries fester in the grass, and the witch hazel that overhangs the old cattle run. The witch hazel’s yellow-spider blooms will arrive in the coming months. Until then, a few of the yellow edged leaves are plucked and, together with the ginkgo fans, are placed in flower presses. In another few weeks, I’ll print with them.
These trees have grown here for more than three decades. We have grown together. I have treasured photos of me and my cousin under the ginkgo when it was only a half metre taller than me. Today it is much taller, wider, its branches are way above my head and I have to reach to pluck my few chosen leaves. We have a reciprocity of friendship. These two trees stand sentinel at either side of the paddock gate where I fed calves from buckets as a child, and played with goats and sheep, and made a hut between the hedgerow conifers in an onion weed clearing.
As I collect the leaves, I think of Robin Wall Kimmerer and her essay on serviceberries and the gift economy.
If our first response is gratitude, then our second is reciprocity: to give a gift in return. What could I give these plants in return for their generosity? It could be a direct response, like weeding or water or a song of thanks that sends appreciation out on the wind. Or indirect, like donating to my local land trust so that more habitat for the gift givers will be saved, or making art that invites others into the web of reciprocity. - Robin Wall Kimmerer
I am grateful for all the trees in my life, but these two feature when I think of my life in trees. They gift me their leaves before they have a chance to reabsorb their nutrients for the winter. With these leaves I’ll make new prints, celebrating the connection with the trees, and I invite you into the web of reciprocity, of appreciation of the non-human others we share our world with.
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The third annual Printopia festival happened over 3-5th May and it was wonderful! This was my first year with a stall at the print fair and I loved it so much. I met so many wonderful people, had wonderful discussions with fellow printmakers and printlovers, shared lots of techniques and recommended a lot of books. I attended an amazing talk by Laura Crehuet Berman about working with colour in layering and connection to place in printmaking, and a papermaking demo by Brie Rate, and I purchased a cyanotype print by Elle Anderson via The Blue BathTub Press Pay and Display machine. My prints were well received, and I had lots of lovely comments about my printed fabric books and hangings.
If you had hoped to purchase one of my prints, or if you have a special print request – please get in touch. I’ve got a few prints left, but I’ll also be doing more papermaking and print sessions in the coming month. If you were keen on the tanekaha ink, but you wanted it with the kahikatea on corn husk paper, or you wanted marigold ink with kawakawa leaves on onion skin paper, or another variation thereof, let me know and I’ll see what I can do. The A5 nature prints on handmade paper with handmade inks are $60 each. The A6 nature prints on high quality 100% cotton paper are $15.
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Changing Threads, the National Contemporary Textile and Fibre Awards were announced last week at the exhibition opening at Nelson’s Artspace Refinery, Friday 17th May. I had submitted my work with the hope that I be included in this exhibition. Much to my astonishment, I was awarded the Supreme Award for my fabric book a whole story in the eye of the sea.
a whole story in the eye of the sea is a hardcover, stab-bound book with 14 cotton silk pages. It is 390 x 220 mm (when closed).
What I wrote for the catalogue:
The cotton-silk pages of a whole story in the eye of the sea create a misty layering that allows a reader to see through past pages and into future pages. Printed with sliced collected driftwood from the shore of Hamilton’s Gap on the Āwhitu peninsula, the book and its central poetic text speaks to a simultaneous presence of my family’s home here in Aotearoa with our ancestral home in Scotland.
What the judges said:
We found ourselves continually drawn back to a quiet contemplative work. We loved the sense of fluidity as the viewer moves forward and back through time that is conveyed through the transparency of the materials used. This allows the deep immersion in the beauty and simplicity of both the text and the imagery. It is a piece that shows that a strong work can have a quiet strength.
The Changing Threads exhibition with work by 42 incredible artists, is on at Refinery ArtSpace Nelson until 15th June. If you’re in the area you might like to take a look (and if you do, send me a photo/video!) The Awards ceremony was recorded, and there will be a virtual tour of the exhibition coming soon.