This May, I was lucky enough to travel to Ghana –  something I have wanted to do for a long time.

Inspiring conversations over the years with friends who had returned, like John from Ivo’s and with designers like Chrissa Amuah & fellow printer Monique had always made it my number one travel destination but it wasn’t until my lovely cousin Shash offered to meet me anywhere in the world – that I was able to book our flights and start planning our trip.

Now, I’m back – I really want to hold onto the many wonderful things that I learned and I thought by sharing some of them here I could help the love travel a bit further. 

So here goes:

1. Everyone is a Maker

Making & creativity is everywhere – from the beautiful school dresses being sewn on every street corner, grass mats being woven, fabric being printed, food being cooked and incredible cooking bowls being carved and patterned from calabashes… making is everywhere!

In Ghana, making is an everyday activity that brings creativity and beauty into daily life. Making is not fetishised, it’s just something you do everyday to make things that you use and enjoy. Creativity brings the streets alive with wonderful sights and sounds – like the sound of the knife grinder and the sewing machine. It made me realise how empty and dead are streets are in comparison, how little we make ourselves and how de-skilled we have become.

2. Pattern & Beauty is Everywhere

I really felt like people relished creating pattern and beauty through everyday things – arranging a pile of fruits for sale, matching a dress fabric with a bow, a young girl wearing a design of young shoots…and taking joy from these simple, everyday acts. It was a big reminder to me to live in the everyday and appreciate the beauty of all the everyday things I have around me.

3. Respect for the Spirit world 

While we were staying in Accra we noticed how little music there was and our neighbours told us this was because it was the Homowo festival, when the Ga people around Accra, show respect for the gods by refraining from playing music in preparation for the planting of the crops in May and the beginning of the rainy season when they hope their gardens will grow and be blessed with fertility. How wonderful to still be in sync with the fertile year – even in a city!

Ghana seemed like a very moral society with no visible drinking or drug taking on the street – this made it feel incredibly safe.

Adinkra symbols are woven into everyday life, for example the 5 interlocking circles of ‘Kuntin Kantan’ symbolising humility and the ‘Oneness of humanity inspite of Difference.’

And cars and trucks are painted with brilliant slogans. These are some of my favourite: 

Give and Take

God’s Time is the Best Time

This Far by Grace

Thank you Shash for a wonderful holiday and for all the families and artisans who hosted us and shared their knowledge, skill and passion.

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Every season these change with the weather, climate, soil…so it’s always an exciting workshop – totally immersive and full of surprises.

On the first day we mordant our fabric – students are encouraged to bring along different weights of fabric to experiment with. And then we take a long walk to forage for plants, fruits & leaves, barks.

We always forage sustainably and come back in time for a nice veggie lunch!

In the afternoon it’s all about getting witchy and brewing up our plants, we make up to 40 dye pots and  just before we leave for the day we add our fabric, leaving it to steep in the hot dye bath overnight.

This is SLOOOOW textiles after all … in the morning we check on our fabrics and how the colour has developed overnight. There are lots of revelations, maybe some disappointments but also some wonderful surprises.

We record our findings using recipe sheets so that everyone has a dye book to take away. And we experiment with different mordants and after baths. Students choose the colours they love and maybe dye a bigger piece of fabric to take away with them.

I’m really keen that students experience how generous plants can be and how one plant, like rhubarb root can give so many shades. I love the fact that students leave this workshop feeling confident enough to experiment with the plants, fruits & flowers where they live.

Building your own special relationship with your own natural habitat – wherever you live, brings so much respect for the natural world and it’s abundance. I hope this is something every student takes away with them

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I was fascinated but my friend told me not to worry – the whole city was covered with beautiful rangoli…and so she proved right. Scattered on pavements  through out the leafy streets of Bangalore were hundreds of these intricately drawn, fragile motifs, no two the same, renewed each morning and fading away through the heat and under the feet and business of the day.

‘They are patterns which reflect a whole cosmic universe in miniature. They are drawn each day by the children and women of the house as a way of propitiating the spirits entering their home – offering them order, harmony and in return requesting peace and blessings.’

Returning home, I noticed that we too had our own daily rangoli artist – Geeta the cook. She filled my sketchbooks with beautiful drawings  and gave me a live demonstration.

Another friend, Samooki turned out to be the daughter of a priestess and temple keeper and was an expert in drawing patterns with out end…

Now back home, with my own rangoli rice powder, I think about how I could make my own rangoli patterns in the street outside my home and what they would look like…

They might provide a subtle orientation to my day and our home, I’m sure, like saying a prayer help to connect us to the day and everything that will unfold and pass away within it.

The post Sacred Pattern I saw my first rangoli on the steps of the Bank of India – an intricate chalky pattern half washed away by the morning rain. appeared first on Sarah Burns Patterns.

These beautiful stately plants with their long, grey green leaves and clouds of yellow flowers have always been slightly illusive to me – promising colour but always slightly slipping away when I try to convert their promise into dye, always sticking a little too yellow or losing their blue rather quicker than I would like.

I’ve kept an indigo bath for years – always added to and rarely cleared out in which I dye metres and metres of linen and hemp. But the indigo I have traditionally used are the cakes of tropical indigo you can get from places like Cloth House. I follow a recipe, I like to think – given to me by Phyllis Barron. It’s a photocopy of her typewritten recipe that I found at her archive in Farnham.

But my woad plants were always there – reminding me of another kind of blue and offering me something I know will be special and most especially an opportunity to discover something new and ancient. So I was thrilled to harvest my woad and join lovely Debbie Manson & Clare O’Leary over in Lewes for a lovely day of woad dyeing – plus so thrilling to leave Steyning!!

I wanted to share the process we shared together with you. If you are a beginner or maybe already had a go with woad, I thought you might find it interesting.

1. I harvested my woad fresh from the allotment. First we shredded the fresh leaves & stood the shredded leaves in boiling water for around an hour.

2) Next we strained off the liquid and shifted the PH of the bath to make it more alkali PH8/9. We did this using Soda Ash. A successful indigo bath must be alkali – this is one of it’s key characteristics

3) Next, we aerated the bath – essentially introduced more oxygen by pouring it from bucket to bucket. We did this for about 15 minutes until the bath was nice and foamy and blue.

4) Finally we used a teaspoon of Sodium Hydrosylphite to remove the oxygen and create our lovely yellow dye bath.

We left the bath to rest for about half an hour before introducing the cloth.

5) These were left in the bath for at least 10 minutes before being removed and quickly placed in a bath of cold water and vigorously agitated – does that make sense?

As we did this – the cloth turned properly blue and seemed to fix really well. So a brilliant idea – thank you Clare!

And a BIG thank you to Debbie for welcoming us into her wonderful workshop garden studio – our time together was really joyful collaboration, play & togetherness.

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One of my favourite capitals is a circle of carved oak leaves – I just love how the stone masons brought nature in from the outside and made the stone come alive.

John Ruskin was a big fan of their bringing the outside in approach in such a free and effortless way. I learned all about his love of medieval sculpture when I visited and researched the amazing Tyntesfield House near Bristol

This is the feeling I wanted to create when I designed my Sussex Oak design – partly inspired by the carvings but also influenced by local patternmaker Peggy Angus who lived not far away. Do visit her archives at The Keep near Brighton if you can. Many of her wonderful prints are boxed up as she left them – she worked with such energy. Partly because she had to (she was a single parent) but also just because she was just that kind of person. She had quite particular views about history and as a teacher designed a wonderful scheme of how each age developed it’s own patterns. She got the students at North London Collegiate School for Girls to paint this as a mural around their art class. She was interested in the meaning behind patterns and this is one of the reasons why she inspires me so much.

My Oak Leaf pattern has been in my mind for over 20 years since I made a little oak leaf print many years ago – sometimes I work very slowly and I just needed the extra time offered by lockdown and my connection to the beautiful church carvings to finally finish the design.

When it came to cut the block I worked in my usual way, cutting and printing and recutting and reprinting until the design had that sense of movement and balance that I seek to create in all my designs.

I printed it onto fabric and paper and because we were in lock down and I had more time, I started to paper our hallway  – the colours made me very happy. I’ve also been printing it onto fabric that I mordant with oak galls that I forage for in the fields around me here in Steyning.

I’m pleased other people like this design – I feel it connects me to the past and also offers some ideas about how we might go forward in the future – making beautiful textiles that are kind to the environment.

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During lockdown I’ve had more time to explore and document my pattern making process – and share with other makers too.

I have so enjoyed the online workshops I’ve done with students all over the world – something I would never have expected and which has been a real treat in these other wise quite isolated times.

Sharing time together has been really special and gaining an understanding of their practice and their particular approach to pattern making has been an ongoing source of inspiration to me.

I thought it might be nice to share a few tips from some of things we have learned together.

Firstly, it seems to me that good pattern is all about creating a sense of movement AND balance. This is something the exercises we do together really help to explore. Together we go through a series of sequences that explore repeat print making and all the endless possibilities of the block. This sequence is something I hope students will take away with them and use to expand and develop their pattern making practice.

Space is your friend. Good design is all about learning how to harness negative as well as postive space. Again – in my workshop we spend time exploring the different properies of negative and positive space and how to create the best balance.

As well as exploring the pattern making  I’ve also been helping students to get better results transferring their marks onto fabric.

When printing blocks onto fabric there is a lot to consider including the block, the printing medium, printing bed, fabric and how to best apply the ink – getting all these ingredients right can help you get a great print or not as I have learned from my many mistakes over the years. It’s important to me that I give my students as much technincal help as possible so they can get the print results they deserve.

I really hope to be back teaching physical workshops in my Sussex studio soon but in the meantime if you would like to take your pattern making skills onto the next stage do get in touch by emailing  sarahburnspatterns@gmail.com

Happy patternmaking!

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This is a quick blog to tell you more about dyeing with weld – one of our most ancient and powerful of dye plants. Until the 1930’s it was still commercially grown in this country and I hope one day we will return to it as it is so very generous in colour and so useful as a base for making lots of other colour – most especially green when it is combined with woad.

It’s just coming into season now and is very easy to grow – liking poor soils but you can also find it growing wild along rivers and hedgerows. You can also order it dried from places like George Weil 

1)To begin – chop up the weld. It’s the stems and leaves that  give most colour.

2) Make a bundle and add to an old pan

3) Cover with hot water and gradually bring to the boil – you will smell and see the wonderful yellow seeping through, it’s magic! Keep the dye bath on a simmer as the colour is released from the plant material.

4) Prepare the cloth you want to dye by wetting it thorougly. Then add it to the dye bath.

5) Keep the bath at a simmer and move the cloth around so that it takes the colour evenly.

6) Carry on until you are happy with the colour – remember it will dry a shade lighter.

Do get in touch with any questions. Hope this goes really well for you and you have fun, Sarah x

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Rhubarb is one of my favourite ever plants to dye with and one of the first I ever discovered. I grow lots on my allotment because it is so useful and versatile and ofcourse delicious to eat as well!

To make dye from this plant you need to dig up the root and after cleaning off most of the soil chop it into little pieces – as you do this you will start to smell it’s delicous sweet smell which will continue to scent your fabric.

Once you have chopped up your rubarb you can place it in the centre of a clean piece of fabric – the kind of fabric that will let the dye pass through easily so any kind of light cotton is perfect – I’ve used some old sheeting.

Take your bundle and put in an old pot and cover with boiling water – put it on the heat and let it simmer – you will soon see the golden yellow colour starting to ooze out.

While your dye bath is simmering you can get on with preparing your fabric.

For this demo I’ve used organic calico but you can experiment with a wide range of fabrics – I’ve even dyed nylons and plastics successfully with rhubarb.

Before you add your fabric to the dye pot make sure it’s wetted through thoroughly – this will help it take the dye better.

You can leave your fabric in the dye bath for as long or as little as you like – the longer you leave it the deeper the tones and as with all the best cooking, the slower you take it the better the results will be. This is the colour I got after leaving the fabric in the dye bath overnight (with the heat off of course)

Here is the surprise bit – if you would like to turn your fabric a reddy pink – make up a solution of soda crystals (just add a few tablespoons to a bowl of water and mix well)

then dip your fabric into it. Here you can see the before and after – it’s always magic and takes me by surprise – one of the wonders of natural dyeing!

I do hope this demo gives you a clear step-by-step approach that will give you the confidence to have a go.

Do let me know how you get on with your rhubarb dyeing and get in touch @sarahburnspatterns@gmail.com if you have any questions.

Have fun!

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In the meantime I was thinking about all the really great plants much closer to home which can also make gorgeous colours. I thought I would share some of these ordinary wonderful things with you and show you how you could – very simply make lovely colours from these very common plants.

Here are a few plants which I hope you can get hold of really easily –

From left to right: Dock Leaves, Cow Parsley, Willow leaves and St Johns Wort stalks (that’s the plant with the pretty yellow flowers, also known as Hypericum. It’s leaves have got a very distinctive spicy sweet smell)

If you don’t have a garden I hope you can ask a friend or neighbour if they maybe have some or take a sneaky handful from the park.

All you need to make your natural dyes apart from the plant matter is some fabric and a pot to cook them up in.

First roughly chop up your leaves and stalks with a pair of scissors

Next – grab a pot. You can use one from the kitchen because non of these leaves are harmful and you can give the pot a good scrub out afterwards.

Next – Fill the pot with hot water and bring to the boil. Then reduce the heat and keep on a low simmer.

Now we can prepare your fabric. I’ve used little squares of calico – it’s just been washed. I haven’t used any mordants or anything special beforehand. You can use any spare cotton, linen or silk that you have to hand – just make sure it’s washed and clean.

Wet your fabric first before adding it to the dye bath.

Keep your dye bath hot and keep adding water so that it doesn’t boil dry. Do take the pot off the heat, for example overnight and just let the fabric steep in the dye – this is a great way to extract the colour.

After 24 hours your fabric should look something like this – the Dock leaves have turned the square of calico brown, the Cowparsley has dyed the fabric an almost illuminous yellow, the Willow leaves have given pink and the St John’s Wort stems a lovely browny red.

To finish off – run your fabric under the tap until the water runs clear. This way you know that any excess dye has been removed.

The process is slow but super simple. Once you’ve had a play with little scraps of fabric you could try larger pieces to make handkerchiefs, scarves, napkins, pillowcases….

And you could try leaving the fabric in for even longer – this is really SLOW textiles and the slower you go the better the result.

I do hope this blog makes sense and gives you clear step by step instructions for  dyeing your own fabric with common garden plants – please get in touch if you have any questions.

I really hope you have a go and please let me know how you get on – your results may not be the same as mine as different soils and weathers have an effect on the plant material but I hope you get something that you like X

Have fun X

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My friend and collaborator on the Steyning Imprint,  Alice keeps a flock of sheep. To me they always seemed like rather strange creatures to be interested in – wonderful as lambs (and very tasty) but rather stupid looking as they got older. But this was before I learned to love wool.

Every summer Alice pays the shearer to shear her sheep to avoid the dreaded ‘fly-strike’ (basically the poor sheep are eaten alive by maggots) and faces with the perennial dilemma of what to do with the wool. One summer we had a huge felting party with the kids and other times Alice uses the wool to wrap around fruit trees, stuff in her attic as insulator – she even used one fleece to fill a cushion…

In all the small villages and hamlets around us in West Sussex there are the clues to this one great English Industry – Cottages with names like Spinners, Woolgatherers, Weavers… My old Vicar is called Graham Woolgar (Wolgatherer). His ancestors are in the graveyard and on the walls of Steyning Town Football Club. But very little of this once great industry remains.

Ofcourse there are still a few craft spinners and fab places like Weald and Downland, Louise Spong at South Down Yarns, Debbie at Plawhatch keeping these valuable skills alive. But the real problem is there is there doesn’t seem to be much market for the local small scale wool being produced around us.

Infact small holders farmers we know are burning their wool because there is nothing else they can do with it. A natural, almost free product with great properties – water proof, hyperalleregnic, carbon neutral, compostable is literally going up in smoke because we no longer have small scale production chains to make the best use of this wonderful local resource.

Inspired by the likes of people like Louise Spong, by Alices’ husbandry and  all round ingenuity – last summer we decided to do something about it; stopping using plastic in our cushion pads (that’s what polyester is) and replacing it with wool instead.

We did not know what a labour of love this would be but as well as being a great deal of work it’s also helped me totally fall in love with wool and become alive to it’s many qualities.

To begin with we put the word out that we would be happy to take any unwanted fleeces and Alice’s shed soon filled up…

Processing the masses of the ‘waste’ wool our small valley had to offer from the flocks of people like Ronnie and the Vics at Annington Farm meant that first we had to find somewhere to store it all (sorry Daniel). Then we began by cutting out the worst bits of gunk (you can imagine ) then soaking the wool in a succession of scalding baths to remove the lanolin (the natural product made by sheep to keep them waterproffed – such amazing stuff).

After many of these we use a final bath of lavender water to scent the wool. We then fill pillow cases with the damp wool and leave them on the gentle heat. Then the business of teasing out the wool begins – it’s rather lovely to find crushed between your fingers on a dark winters evening – a summers hay grass…

Most of the the fleeces we were donated were Jacob’s sheep as Ben granny was a spinner and loved Jacob’s for their long staple (the length of the wool fibres). These Jacob’s have gradually made their way down the valley (they are great fence jumpers) and even Alice has a few now.

Somewhere during all these hours working with wool – pulling, tearing, stroking, teasing – I have fallen in love with what is the most amazing natural creation: soft, strong, pliable and resiliant. It makes me feel really happy to think we’ve saved even a small amount of this amazing natural resource and put it to good use.

So if you’re in need our cushion pad or two – do have a look at our cushion pads. They’re available in our standard sizes – 45cm x 45cm and 35cm x 50cm but we’re also really happy to sew up any size cushion you like. We think they’re really reasonably priced and offer a fantastic alternative to plastic polyester pads.

They’re all hand-sewn (by us!) using 100% organic calico.

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