Karen
I´m Karen! I am a fiber artist living on an island in coastal Alaska. I knit, spin wool, dye the wool I spin with natural dyes, and practice botanical printing on fabric and paper.
The temperate rainforest and associated habitats of my area provide so many interesting plants to experiment with for printing including species in the following plant families: Compositaceae (Aster), Leguminosae, Saxifragaceae, Salicaceae, Betulaceae and Ericaceae. I love working with plants that I grow in my garden such as flowers and indigo. I also like to work with invasive plants. I enjoy upcycling a thrift find and giving it another life. The classes I have taken from Irit ( two in person and one on line) have helped me grow as a botanical printer and to feel confident to explore and experiment. Because of my classes with Irit, I understand and practice the skills of finding good material to work with, both in the plants and tannins used, and the chosen fiber.
A table runner
Fabric: cotton
Mordant: Monochromatic recipe
Printed: I really love the Red Alder (Alnus rubra) leaves that are insect eaten, leaving only the veins and some leaf matter. I also used fresh Devil’s Club (Oplopanax horridus) from my forest and used the smallest leaves, collected with leather gloves. This plant has a lot of spines so it is best with a thick cotton. I also used some wild fern, Bracken (Pteridium).
Blanket: Oak galls tannin blanket
A piece I printed in “Textiles com Alma” Tuscany 2022
Fabric: cellulose
Mordant: Combo light
Printed: The peonies were collected from a village garden during our visit to Scansano , where we met the gardener and he gave us his trimmings. I also use Fern (unknown kind) that I collected around the Tuscany roadsides
Blanket: Cutch
