One-of-a-kind garments, hand-dyed with locally abundant 'weeds' that grow with the rains.
Printing Plants of the Spring Collection
In the Spring I ecoprint with the spontaneous weeds that pop up after the winter rains. My favorite places to search for these 'weeds' are in the many terrenos baldios (abandoned lots), matos (fields), roadsides, and edges of gardens & public parks.
Joining the map of areas where I forage in the Spring is a new park that was built last summer in my neighborhood. This park was developed as a strategy for rainwater management and excess water in the 'ribeira' and there was a lot of excavation to create a water catchment basin, moving a lot of earth in the process. Turning soil brings seeds up to the surface including RESEDA LEUTEOLA (one of the most historically important sources for yellow).
Besides Reseda, the most common plants to feature in the collection were:
Wild fennel (Foeniculum vulgare)- a native, edible , perennial shrub.
Chrysanthemums (Glebionis coronaria)- native, annual wildflower most commonly known as 'wild daisy'.
Coleostephus (Coleostephus myconis) - another native wildflower, also known as 'wild daisy'.
Anacyclus (Anacyclus radiatus)- yet another native wildflower, also known commonly as 'wild daisy'.
Bidens (Bidens aurea)- Invasive plant that spreads through rhizomes and is most often found in damp soils.
Wild carrot (Torilis arvensis) - In the carrot family, but not the wild carrot. DO NOT CONFUSE with toxic lookalike poison hemlock.
Tagueda (Dittrichia viscosa)- Native, perennial plant that is so common it's mostly overlooked.
Coreopsis (Coreopsis grandiflora) - Exotic species (but not particularly disruptive to local ecosystems), so-referred to as 'escaped from cultivation'.
Castor (Ricinus communis) - Invasive to Portugal and most known for it's cosmetic oil and the poison ricin produced in the seeds.
Herb Robert (Geranium robertianum) - My favorite geranium to print with. Only available near me in early spring. As soon as it gets hot, it goes away and then I must go to cooler locations (in Sintra for example) to collect them.
You can see the plants used in the collection below:
Do you recognize any of them? You probably have them growing right outside your home!
Spring Dye Plants
For immersion dyed color, I always choose the most abundant and permanent sources of plant color because you need much larger quantities to get deep saturated shades. Yellow, orange, pink, and grey were the colors of the season!
Yellows in this collection came from Ditrichia viscosa (Tagueda) - a fuzzy and sticky native perennial plant that is so common almost no one knows its name.
Oranges came from Bidens aurea, an invasive plant that grows all over my neighborhood (I'd like to think that pulling it from the root in handfuls prevents the spread).
Pinks and grey-purples (with iron) came from avocado pits & skins. Despite not being a local source of color, I received a generous donation of Avocado pits that my friend and incredible florist, Albane, had been saving in the freezer all year. By the time spring comes around, freezer space is more valuable and it's time to use all those avocado pits.
Intervention as Regeneration
People and plants have historically had mostly symbiotic relationships. The most impressive ecosystems on the planet are those managed by indigenous communities with conscious interventions. The road to sustainability is not one where people leave plants alone, but one where we help each other thrive.
Being the first year I noticed Reseda in the park, I didn't harvest too much. Making sure I tend the Reseda this year, will mean more abundant harvests in years to come! Strategic prunings earlier in the season encouraged more branching and growth. Once the plants started to dry, I saved some seeds in a jar. The municipal gardeners tend to clear-cut all the spontaneous plants and I wanted to make sure I'd have a bank of Reseda seeds to spread. At the end of the summer, I'll spread the seeds around the park and repeat this process until the Reseda can self-seed itself abundantly! Maybe next year I'll have enough reseda to use it for solid color and not just its prints.
Spring Plants Reflect a Will to Live
This Spring collection is a celebration of the wild plants that exemplify incredible resilience, relentless inspiration, and force of life through the concrete. Their capability to spring back after the municipality gardeners have 'cleaned' the weeds brings me endless joy. A reminder of strength and peace through the natural cycles (that we're also a part of!) and blatant demonstration that weeds are actually magically potent plants!
This collection focuses on a few plants that I wanted to get to know better as printers. Throughout the season I sensitized myself to their particularities, growing conditions, timeline, and growth cycles.
The themes I captured on the spring pieces were the beautiful chaos of wild plants growing together, the contrast between warm days and cold nights, and the gentleness of budding growth. I hope you can enjoy the fresh feeling of Spring, captured on fabric.
Seasonal Remarks
Blessed by rain this year (a dramatic contrast to last year's single rainfall in April), the Spring collection was one of the biggest, including 26 deadstock and pre-loved linen garments given a new lease at life. June 12th marked the last day I printed with Spring weeds, drawing the season to a close as plants dried up outside. Time for summer.
You can now shop the available Spring collection pieces online or visit them in real life at a market. The next markets will be:
August 3&4 - Crafts & Design Market, Jardim da Estrella
August 17&18 - Miradouro da Graça
August 25 - Quintas Market, Barril (near Ericeira)
September 19-23 - Mostra Bienale Artes & Oficios, Oeiras
Please note - I do not upload smaller offerings like totes, socks, and aprons to the webshop. Should you wish to shop these items please visit me in person at a market or find a special selection at Malala Vintage Shop in Graça, Lisbon.
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