LIFE IN COLOUR
How Altries continues to inspire Araminta’s textiles business
Araminta began creating embroidered art works inspired by the Scottish landscape and realised that weaving would enable her to explore this theme in greater depth.
Early experiments in the garden continue to influence her approach.
Starting with silk and wool she used natural plant materials, creating woven textiles that evoked the changing of the seasons at Altries.
Plants were sourced in the garden or foraged in hedgerows; from marigold petals and heather to oak bark, blackberries and elder.
The acid needed to fix the dye is made by boiling down leaves from the rhubarb patch with copper pennies and iron nails as mordants.
Some results were surprising: beetroot shifted from a deep purple/red to a soft peachy pink, and heather produced a lovely delicate yellow.
The type of fibre and mordant also changed the shade each dye produced allowing the creation of a wide range of different shades and colours for use in woven artworks.