Fashion and Restoration

I'm just back from two lovely weeks in Canberra.
I had the feeling of being slightly 'out of place',  making and printing with the dyes made from Merri Creek weeds, transported all the way to the ACT hundreds of km's from its gathering. Many of the same plants were growing all over ANU (periwinkle, willow, soursobs); a reminder that introduced species (and indigenous species) have vast geographical overlaps across the country.

 Hemp, pre-mordanted with soda ash and alum. Orange = soursob, pink = willow bark, green = periwinkle flowers, yellow = cape broom or gorse flowers or thistle leaves

Wool, pre-dyed with wattle flowers. As above, but the periwinkle = purple

These three fabrics have all been printed with the same dyes. The colour changes reflect the mordants and fabric types. It was unexpected that the woolen fabric made the periwinkle purple and the hemp (premordanted in alum and soda ash) created a periwinkle green.
Sadly the steaming process made much of the colour disappear. I will conduct further tests to see if this was a result of not enough steaming, or if the periwinkle needs something else to make sure it holds fast to the fabric.

 Mid 18th Century pockets
Reconstructed with wool and cotton printed with soursob (oxalis) and gorse flowers.
These pockets would have originally been work under a dress where openings in the side seams allowed access to the pockets. My version can be worn as an external garment, similar to an apron.

Raquel directed me to the Tailor's Apprentice. A Jane Austen enthusiast, and wonderful tailor/ seamstress. Her facebook page is an exciting and entertaining resource for people interested in fashion from bygone eras (in particular Austen's era). Reading through various links to blogs and articles I was struck by the dedication of these artisans. Their eye for detail and obsession with doing things authentically is something to behold. No sewing machines, just an historic equivalent of haute couture.
My art practice is not about this level of replication or imitation, much as the restoration work along the Merri Creek is not striving for a perfect moment of yesteryear. However, the intersection of historic garment, its history and mode of (re)production, and the wear and tear on urban waterways such as the Merri speak to each other. Something can be learnt from the the care and time involved in recreating a garment to its historic specifications. While ecological restoration necessarily uses contemporary science to guide its direction, in the end, the work cannot be achieved via shortcuts. It is a practice of repetition and persistence, weeding, planting, waiting and watching.