Could you start by telling us about some of your earliest memories of making and creating?

I started making really early on, creativity was really encouraged in my household. My parents provided my brother and I with all manner of art materials and I remember sitting for hours drawing and painting plants and animals I’d seen in books or out and about. My mum would take us out on a lot of day trips to gardens, galleries and little gift shops and I remember absorbing inspiration from those trips like a sponge. I had sketchbooks from an early age and would work with watercolours and graphite pencils to replicate what I’d seen.

I was always excited to try new materials and one of my core memories is of my dad taking me to the paper shop, it had rows and rows of different coloured papers and card and you could pay a certain amount and then fill a box to take home. We’d spend ages in this shop pouring over the shelves and I remember coming home and creating all kinds of collages, illustrated cards and artworks with the contents of my box. My dad is creative like me and I think seeing him following his whimsy, stockpiling materials and creating his own projects gave me the permission to do the same.

What first drew you to textiles?

I’m a very tactile person, I’m obsessed with textures. As a child I’d spend a lot of time with my granny who was a keen maker and we’d often go to the fabric shop to pick out fabrics for her makes. I remember walking around the fabric shop and feeling like I was in a candy shop, being able to touch the fabrics and pick out something small to take home and use. My mum taught me how to hand stitch and then my granny taught me how to sew on a machine so by the time I started textiles lessons in school I was already a confident sewer.

I always wanted to make something functional and professional looking so once I’d made a few pieces of clothing, I went to university to study fashion design. What I learnt there was that it was the fabric I loved making more than the clothing; I began pairing my love of art and illustration with my love of textiles and began creating digitally printed textiles, but these still felt too structured. I needed to translate my love of floaty textures and soft layers into textiles more fluidly, and that’s how I found natural dyes. By layering techniques in the way that I do, I’m able to create something atmospheric or dramatic by working in a painterly fashion directly onto the fabric. It’s totally unpredictable once it’s gone in the dye pot and I find that so freeing, I love that I can now use my dyed textiles to be as versatile as I like; I can be an artist and create layered 2D works, whilst also being a maker of decorations, lampshades, scarves and other functional objects. Textiles give me the freedom to do whatever I like.

How has your creative process evolved over time?

I’ve become a lot more experimental in my creative process over time. I used to work in quite a gentle one dimensional way, carefully calculating the dyes and making notes, one plant at a time. I now much prefer working in a way that layers tones and pushes the pigments and the silk itself a bit further. I really enjoy creating deep tones and then modifying them or stripping them away by altering their pH. I’ve pushed the silks to the point of ripping by experimenting with heavy modifiers, whilst also creating works which are far softer than I’d ever use functionally. Maybe this comes with experience, but I’m much less precious with trying to engineer an outcome with the dye work these days, it’s really not enjoyable for me to bring measuring scales, textbooks and calculations into my creative space. I think there is beauty in having such unpredictable outcomes and allowing myself to follow my instincts, throwing colours and plants in at random intervals throughout my process.

I’m also quite a frantic, disorganised person and I’d be lying if I said my creative process didn’t reflect that. I’ve really experimented with the parameters I’ve set myself around my practice in the past few years and it’s opened up a whole new point of view for me. I used to think if I made art with textiles then I couldn’t add additional textures to my work unless they were embroidered or textile based, like I was answering a brief that was written for me. That’s such utter nonsense! It’s my art and I can do what I like with it! I’m much happier finishing my fine art works with oil pastels or a lick of gold leaf than I am carefully stitching details in with a needle and thread. I love fluid lines and I think it shows in the finished pieces.

How important is maintaining an environmentally responsible practice to you?

My practice revolves around the environment, it’s the ultimate inspiration and the source of many of my dyes. I live in Marsden, a rural village at the foot of the pennines between Huddersfield and Manchester surrounded by moorlands, woods and reservoirs. I find myself being in absolute awe of the environment I live in almost daily. Living here means we’re surrounded by greenery in every direction; we regularly see deer in the woods across from the house as well as curlews, oyster catchers, woodpeckers (I could go on and on!) in the moorlands and along the canal where my studio resides. That being said, an all too regular occurrence are the wildfires on the moors around Marsden. I have sat in my back garden and seen the glow from a fire over the hill and ashes falling from the sky into my bowl as I eat lunch; I have also walked around the moors after a fire and seen the devastation caused to ground nesting birds, small mammals and their habitats. I have made pieces which process these experiences and I think it’s important that conversations are had around this.

I can’t claim that my practice is 100% perfect, but I can do my bit to ensure that I am respecting the environment from which my dyes come. I work with natural dyes which are seasonally foraged, grown, dehydrated and stored. I am able to compost the dyes once I have finished using them and I work with silk which is fully biodegradable under the correct conditions within around four years. I think there is a greater conversation to be had around our expectations of ‘things’ as consumers though. As a natural dye artist, I am very aware of the fact that natural dyes do not have the same lifespan as synthetic colours or paints and that they will interact with their environment, alter and even fade as time goes on. For my functional products like scarves, I offer a re-dye service which is lovely as it strengthens connections with the work and allows the owner to have some agency over the dyes and colours used throughout its lifespan, hopefully fighting against throwaway culture. However, for my fine art works I want to celebrate these changes as an interaction with the lifespan of the piece. I think it is a really beautiful thing to witness such changes and that we should celebrate ageing works; I don’t want my work to outlive me on the planet.

Is there a particular project you’re especially proud of or one that’s close to your heart?

I’ve been very fortunate to work on a number of really interesting projects throughout the years with lots of wonderful people, but I think the one which will always be close to my heart is my first exhibition which was made during my PhD studies in collaboration with my friend, embroidery artist Elnaz Yazdani. It was the first time I’d pushed my work with natural dyes to create fine art pieces. I made the pieces on the floor of my galley kitchen, pre-studio days when I only had the most basic kit to work with (and a very sympathetic housemate!). I was also in the early days of my relationship with my partner; we’d spend a lot of time going on walks in beautiful places and were very much falling in love so he, and this time were the inspiration for the works. The pieces were finished with dried plants from the dye garden Elnaz and I had created at the university together, which Elnaz then embroidered on using gold work. My housemate Chris made the tray frames for me to hang the work in. It was just a really special collaborative effort at a really special time in my life. My two favourite pieces are still hanging in our home in Marsden.

Could you tell us a little more about your upcoming workshops and what participants can expect?

I’ve got two really lovely workshops coming up at the biscuit factory. The first one is a natural dye landscapes workshop, where you’ll get to spend a day with me as I show you how to layer up natural dye techniques on silk fabric to create your own 10” x 10” landscape. We’ll use dried and foraged plants and will work into the pieces with pH modifiers to create contrast before adding gold leaf and oil pastels to pick out any highlights and finish them off. It’ll really challenge you to place any expectations aside and embrace the unpredictability of natural dyes. Absolute beginners welcome! The second workshop is an Autumnal workshop where we’ll be stitching whimsical 3D toadstools using the most beautiful naturally dyed silks, we’ll hand stitch embroidered details and stuff them with natural kapok fibre so there’s no plastic in sight! This will be a really gentle mindful workshop best suited to those who have some stitching experience. Please do come along and if you have any questions, you’re very welcome to email me at kayleigh@ocrenaturaldyestudio.com.

Find out more about Kayleigh’s workshops: Natural Dye Landscapes | Stitch a Toadstool.

Photography by Daniel Johnson Gray