Projects

ocre is a luxury eco-friendly womenswear and homewear brand that celebrates natural processes and sustainability. I founded ocre in 2020 and since then, have created naturally dyed silk scarves and accessories which are dyed using natural pigments and are fully biodegradable. These pieces are for sale on my instagram @ocre.uk and through Heart Gallery in Hebden Bridge.

The University Colour Garden was part of University of Huddersfield’s ‘Cultures of Place’ exhibition, celebrating place-based research projects. I worked alongside embroidery artist Elnaz Yazdani to design, build and utilise a community colour garden which was used as a base to run community and undergrad natural dye workshops from. The project culminated in an exhibition of naturally dyed silk pieces featuring dyes and dried botany from the garden shown at Queensgate Market, these pieces have since moved to be displayed at Hope Gallery, Hebden Bridge. I continue to manage and run the dye garden for university students as a project for wellbeing and education around sustainable textiles.

This project was in junction with WOVEN in Kirklees, designed to explore views of natural dyes and expectations of colour from young people. Myself and another artist taught natural dye sessions in three primary schools and facilitated the designing and dyeing of t-shirts with the students to allow them to become sustainable fashion designers. We took them foraging for natural dyes, and used food waste dyes to pigment their t-shirts and they completed workbooks about what they had learnt. This culminated in a photo shoot to show off their designs in their chosen themes.