Sara Santoro works from a garden studio in Ahuriri/Napier, where she dyes and weaves textiles, ever with a sense of discovery.
You came to weaving via landscape design. How did you learn the art? I started experimenting with natural dyes when I felt a strong urge to get back to doing something creative with my hands. Having sewn on and off for many years, I began dyeing linen and cotton cloth. I’m self-taught, spending many hours researching natural dye processes and makers online, and became drawn to contemporary textile artists who were creating amazing work with naturally dyed yarn. I bought a small, simple loom, enrolled in an online tapestry course, and was hooked.
How did you kick off the process of dyeing yarns? By simmering plant material such as wild fennel and peach leaves. Then I moved into sowing dye-plant seeds in a dedicated area of our garden. I’ve loved gardening most of my life and was excited to use plants to create beautiful colours. The connection between the garden, natural fibres and the creative process felt like a perfect fit.
There are quite a few steps in the creation of each textile piece. Can you walk us through them? First I collect dye materials either from my garden or while out walking. Wild fennel is abundant in Hawke’s Bay over summer and gives amazing yellows, as does homegrown coreopsis and sulphur cosmos. Tans and browns come from alder cones, acorns and walnuts, and blues are made with homegrown indigo leaves or, in winter, in a specialised indigo vat. Creating pinks from avocado is always fun, black scabiosa from the garden is a favourite and I’ve recently started pushing my palette further by adding a little natural dye extract to some of my dye baths.
I simmer the dye material in water to release the pigment, then submerge New Zealand wool yarn — which I’ve scoured and mordanted — into the dye bath and gently simmer again until the desired colour is achieved.
I sometimes experiment with shifting the colour using modifiers: a lot of the flowers and leaves give a lovely yellow or orange, but can be moved to amazing greens, which is done with homemade iron water made with rusty pieces of iron found at the old Napier Hospital site, a short walk from home.
I set up the loom and weave using these yarns, often combined with raw linen, balancing texture, colour and pattern to create pieces that are made into homewares— I’m working on a selection of cushions at the moment.
This all happens from your home studio. What’s your patch of Hawke’s Bay like? I had longed for a dedicated creative space for many years, so when the opportunity came for us to buy my childhood home, along with the studio built by my parents for my mum (an artist), it was an easy decision. I love having my own space to spread out, make a mess and create, away from the family home. The studio is tucked into the garden at the bottom of the property with lovely views out over the bay to the ranges. As Mum can no longer paint, I feel incredibly lucky to be able to carry on its artistic purpose in my own way.
What part of the process do you most look forward to? I’m always excited to see what colour the dye bath will give me. Sometimes it’s a win and I get exactly what I hoped for, other times the colour is disappointing and I’ll muck around with pH or iron modifiers until I’m happy. I love a freshly warped loom, ready to weave.
I don’t really plan my weavings, preferring to work by feel. Sometimes it works, sometimes not, so I’ll unpick if I’m not loving a certain colour combination or pattern.
What keeps you passionate about natural dyeing? That it’s not an exact science. Even when using the same plant, where it was grown or the time of year it was harvested can produce surprisingly different hues. Wool yarns also absorb dye uniquely, depending on the breed of sheep and weight of the yarn. No colour can ever be replicated exactly; there’s a sense of unpredictability and a feeling of not being entirely in control, which is fun.
What’s on the loom right now? I recently invested in a larger loom, so big cushions and squabs are in progress. I’d love to move into woven paintings in the near future.
What do you hope someone feels when they pick up one of your pieces? In a world full of mass-produced products, I hope people can see and feel the beauty of the natural fibres, and the colour and texture in every piece. I hope they can appreciate that every one is handmade and unique.
loomstudio.co.nz
Interview Alice Lines
Photography Hazel Redmond
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