This week on FEEDBACK FRIDAY we had natural dyer and artist Lotta Helleberg. Lotta talked about her artistic journey, specifically how and why botanical printing, and natural dye processes have become the main focus of her art practice. She also discussed the roles of her local flora and the plants in her dye garden (including weeds and less desirable inhabitants) and presented her most recent work involving a vintage, badly damaged quilt, which has regained new life with the help of natural dyes and patient repair work.
Watch the video here.
Lotta Helleberg bio:
Lotta Helleberg is a Swedish-born artist based in Charlottesville, Virginia. For more than a decade, Helleberg has experimented with botanical contact printing, relief processes, and local plant-based dyes, to render works that both document and celebrate her immediate surroundings. Her unconventional wall and book works have been featured in numerous solo and group exhibitions across the United States as well as abroad, including the Festival of Quilts in the United Kingdom. Helleberg’s work has been presented in several national and international publications such as Natural Processes in Textile Art by Alice Fox, Art Quilting Studio, American Craft, and Patchwork Professional.
FEEDBACK FRIDAY
If you are not familiar with FEEDBACK FRIDAY, every week, we speak with dyers, artists, scientists and scholars about our favorite topic, natural dyeing and color. Curated by Amy DuFault, Botanical Colors’ Sustainability Director and presented by Botanical Colors’ Founder Kathy Hattori.
We even have our own theme song thanks to musician Jimmie Snider!