Crowd-Seeded Indigo Farm, 2017–18
Thank you, collaborators:
GrowNYC Teaching Garden for space, soil, farming support.
Brooklyn Botanic Garden for germinating thousands of seeds for a robust harvest.
Friends, fellow artists and family all over NYC who believed in this project, planted seeds with me on windowsills and backyards, harvested leaves and listened to yet challenged my knowledge about pigment extraction and dye-making methodology.
Wyckoff Farm for supporting me as Artist in Residence, 2017–18, providing space in your farm for indigo planting and organizing related activities with teens.
Indigo-dyed silk shoe inspired by “American mother of indigo,” Eliza Lucas Pinckney’s silk, brocaded shoe. 2018. Embroidery on indigo-dyed silks sitting on a bed of Japanese indigo flowers going to seed. Note: the flowers are not dye-producing. It’s the leaves from which dye is made. 7″x19″x18″.
Harvesting indigo at the Teaching Garden, GrowNYC, Governors Island. September 29, 2018. Photo by Lily Maslanka.
Hand-dyed cotton and silk with fresh leaves and salt or fermented leaf vats. 2018.
Students rubbing salt onto leaves and silk at GrowNYC’s Governors Island Education Garden. 9-8-18.
Pieced indigo-dyed sampler made for Barbara Kurland, School Programs Manager at the Brooklyn Botanic Garden. Thank you Barbara and the Education Greenhouse for germinating and hosting so many seeds and seedlings. You made this year’s harvest a success.
Indigo pocket with seeds. 2018. Indigo dyed silk and cotton with fresh leaves and salt and fermented leaf vats.
