'Hammered Woad and Mud' - (Karen Hansen, 2025) Bundle dye in geothermal mudpool (Framed)

Karen Hansen 'Hammered Woad and Mud ' (2025) 220x220x15 mm

I have been growing The Ancestral Pigment of pre-celtic peoples in my dye and medicine garden, and experimenting with colour extraction using non-traditional methods to see what may be created. For this sample piece, I hammered woad leaves into mordanted cotton, before layering with other plants, bundling, and immersing in a semi-viscuous geothermal mud pool I have been sitting with.

There is always something that catches my heart, when edges are raw,  colour is smashed and messy in just the right places. When geothermal staining, takes on imagery of it's own and adds interest to a work that otherwise could look too pure. too clean, too unnatural. Life is messy and layered with contrast. This is a collaboration between ancients, and myself; playful and synergistic.

Matted and Framed.

All Karen's latest works are co-creations with Spirit and Nature Beings, which continue their conversations with the viewer long after they come into physical being.