麻豆约拍

25 October 2019

Textile artist Catherine Lewis is reinventing ancient Welsh crafts for a new generation.

It鈥檚 important to me that I鈥檓 using produce that鈥檚 grown locally

She gathers and works with natural materials to make inks and dyes in order to create her eco-conscious art.

“I’m really inspired by natural landscapes and the changing seasons,” says Catherine, whose workshop is in Cardiff.

“I love the fact that my clothes and my work is seasonal so I’m actually out in the open, collecting and gathering.

“You never know exactly what the results are going to be. So a little bit of magic happens!”

This sustainable art shows us that newer doesn’t always mean better.

“I realised that there’s a colour blue that comes from a plant called woad, which was traditionally used by the Celts to cover their bodies, and also used by Samurai warriors,” she explains.

“So I’m trying to grow my own woad plants at the moment to get a ‘Cardiff Blue’, so hopefully next year we should have our own crop.”

Catherine’s work is 100% eco-friendly, using only materials from nature, and she draws inspiration from the world around her.

“It’s important to me that I’m using produce that’s grown locally,” she says.

“I collect iron that’s been left from the coal industry, I walk through parks and see daffodils, walnuts, hazelnuts, oak galls and things that I can collect. So I’m gathering as I’m experiencing the landscape.”

But this isn’t just the art of the past ... it could be the art of the future.

“It’s lovely inspiring young people, and all sorts of people, through teaching and they’re often inspired to go out and carry on using natural materials in their own artwork,” she says.

“I would really like to be able to develop a printer ink so that I can do my own digital work.

“It’s so much more satisfying knowing that I’m not using anything harmful, and that I’m doing something that’s good for the planet and for myself.”