Create unique coloured patterns on fabric using native plants | My Garden Path | Gardening Australia

Katie West is a Yindjibarndi woman and artist who uses native plant material to dye fabric and create other art.

She is currently living on Wurundjeri country in Melbourne where she walks along the Yarra River collecting fallen plant material, especially:

• Eucalyptus leaves, which can create gold, grey or purple colours
• Eucalyptus bark, which create purples
• Acacia leaves, which can create orange or red dyes.

Katie explains the bundle dying technique that she uses, laying the plant material onto organic fabrics, mostly calico and silk, and rolling it up tightly.

During ‘muhlu’ - the cool season – the rolled fabric is boiled in water for about an hour. You can vary the resulting colours by including rusty objects or adding vinegar.

In the hot ‘garwarrn’ season, when it is too hot to have a fire, the bundles are placed in glass jars of water and left in a sunny spot for solar dying. This slower process takes a number of weeks, as the tannins migrate from plant material to the fabric.

The process of collecting is meditative as well as helping her become familiar with the plants, birds and animals around her.

Katie shared these skills when she was invited to her mother’s country in Roebourne, north-west WA, through the Nyinart Yinda artist-in-residence program, and in turn learnt to use local plant species from this area.

Featured plants:
Sturt’s Desert Pea (Swainsona formosa)
Mulla Mulla (Ptilotus exaltatus)


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