cyanotypes on teabags
cyanotypes about tom brown the apple guy, radioactive honey, and the history of betty crocker
below you will find one sewn body suit about the history of betty crocker (not a real woman) and the labor of test kitchens, tom brown who is hunting down apple varieties sewn into a halter top, and the fact that some honey in america is still radioactive also sewn into an educational halter top. boobs out, agricultural history out.
i grew marigolds, saffron, indigo, red amaranth, peaches (for the leaves), acorns, goldenrod, and sourced bugs, leaves, tree bark to make natural dyes. plant dye sticks to natural fibers after fibers have been treated with metals and mordants. my fabrics get an alum bath, then are treated with a tannin either from oak galls or black tea before being dyed with logwood, madder root, cochineal, and other experimental dyes.
naturally dyed fabrics
there is some overlap of my cyanotype and natural dye work. i often cyanotype on top of already dyed material. am i the first to ever do this? maybe so…….
the work demonstrated here shows the finished product of labor intensive projects. i dye my material and then sew them into quilts or clothing.
while scrolling this section you might see some t-shirts and think “that looks screenprinted.” it is. when i was unemployed for 6 months between 2022 and 2023, i used the natural dyes as stated to make t shirts and then screen printed poems and spells onto them. i sold all of them. it was a beautiful time. then i got a job and you know how it goes.
