In her Tasmanian backyard studio, Kate Fletcher creates colour from leaves, bark and windfallen branches. Working intuitively rather than by strict formula, she scatters plant material across cloth, binds it into bundles and lowers it into simmering dye pots. The colours that emerge – soft yellows, smoky greys, warm pinks and leaf-shaped imprints – reflect the season, the weather and the nature of each plant.
For Kate, natural dyeing is a collaboration with the landscape. “You’re painting with plants,” she says. “The beauty is in the surprise.”
“My favourite thing about my clothing is that it is a conglomeration of different makers who have lived or wwoofed at my house and members of our Tassie Dyeing Divas mob, plus things I have traded with friends at clothes swaps,” Kate said. “Apart from undies and thermals, the only new purchases I make are from local designer-makers – most of whom are known to me.
“I am always darning, patching and dyeing fabrics and garments. I often have a number of wwoofers and we create garments together. At this moment, Nina is creating a garment using a Japanese pattern and a sheet she dyed with plants, and Aden is overlocking several wool tops made with fabric from the op shop.
