Susan Walsh

Susan Walsh

Sue is an ecoprint artist living in North Yorkshire. Her passion for the British countryside runs through every piece, whether textile or paper based. Her work is an exploration of the local flora, its textures, pattern, and botanical qualities. Walking is a necessary part of the foraging and gathering stage. Through observation and identification she begins to build up a picture of the habitat and what thrives in any given place. The ever-shrinking wild habitats have become a source of concern, and so the careful collection of plant material gives an opportunity for the plants to tell their stories through the beautiful shapes, properties, and pigments that they give through the ecoprint process.

The print process begins with fabric preparation, scouring and mordanting the beautiful natural fabrics to open the fibers for printing. Then comes the gathering of plant material and laying it on the surface of the fabric. This is followed by bundling the fabric tightly and then steaming or immersing to ‘cook’. When unwrapped, the cooking reveals that the leaves and flowers have left an imprint on the fabric.

Sue uses carefully selected mordants and natural dyes to enhance her work, but more importantly, that can be poured on the garden afterwards. The garden is quickly becoming full of plants that print or dye well. Her practice is as environmentally friendly as possible, using repurposed farmers buckets/second-hand pans to soak/cook fabric in, plus upcycled clothing or vintage fabric to print on, down to business cards made from recycled cotton! She hopes to reconnect people to the everyday beauty that surrounds us in the natural world. She makes wearable pieces, hangings, journals, cards and runs workshops from her garden studio.