The symbol of the silver fern, in it’s many forms and variations is very much in evidence everywhere you look in New Zealand, from the airplane you arrive on, to the dinnerware you eat from, on every piece of signage and every brochure, on mugs and jewelry, caps and tees. 

We head to the north island on NZ Air, which proudly displays the Koru on its planes.

For the indigenous New Zealanders, the Maori, the silver fern was an important symbol used in jewelry and in carvings decorating their meeting houses. Called the Koru, (the Maori word for “loop“) the spiral shape is reminiscent of the form of an unfurling frond. It symbolizes new life, growth, strength and peace. 

The circular shape of the koru helps to convey the idea of perpetual movement while the inner coil suggests a return to the point of origin.

Art depicting the Koru is quite in evidence. One piece I really enjoyed was a fired clay mural in the town of Coromandel. 

Including the Koru in my printmaking seemed a wonderful way to mark this journey. I honed in on a design of loops and spirals and hooks, as in a lot of the jewelry I had seen. What type of tool would suit the design? A stencil was an obvious answer, but that would lead to very clean lines. I chose to interpret the design in a carved block, reminiscent of the Maori carvings I saw in the museum in Christchurch.

I kept the carving deliberately rough, to hint at wood grain.

Here are my test patches.

Testing the block…

The next step was to incorporate it onto several pieces in progress. Here it is on a small piece of sateen, first used to test Thermofax screens.

The test piece, in its initial stages. . . .

Finished test print of ferns with block printed background; now to quilt it!

This measures about 11 x 12, before quilting. I am looking forward to seeing what quilting adds! 

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Melanie Testa and I have been hosting a Print-Along in our Facebook community. Sharing the process is part of that!  As I mentioned in my last blog post, I have been making tools for printing inspired by the ferns I so enjoyed on hikes in New Zealand.

While traveling, photography is my primary way of recording what attracts me about a culture and a place, but I always carry a sketchbook as well. The photo above shows a rubbing of a fern taken off the cover of an embossed leather guest book in one of the places we stayed. 

A number of the tools I am making are based on my photographs of ferns. When studying a photo, I have a number of options: I could make a sketch from the photo, do a tracing, or alter the photo in Photoshop or another image editor. I could keep it quite detailed, or abstract it. I also need to consider the scale I want the image to be when printing.

Some images lend themselves easily to interpretation – for example, the red fern image. I love the shape of it, the spiraling petals, and the strong stem, in contrast to so many delicate ferns.

I could isolate the main shape and increase the contrast in the image and then use it to make a Thermofax screen (below left). This technique is described on page 73 in Playful Fabric Printing.

Or, I could make a foam stamp from the image by abstracting it in a drawing (below right) and then using the drawing to create the stamp (below center). This technique is described on page 58 in Playful Fabric Printing.

Here are test prints from these tools. The left side is the Thermofax print. The center is the foam stamp print. The right shows layering the Thermofax on top of the foam stamp for another look.

Each of these paths lead to a certain effect, or look, when printing. They are all good, so how do I choose? Often, the choice may depend on the look I want. Sometimes I will choose based on the materials I have on hand. Sometimes I will choose based on time factors; for example, foam stamps are very quick and fast. Thermofax screens can take longer, because of the graphic work required (but I enjoy that part!) Other times I just feel in the mood to carve. 

I also developed several Thermofax screens for the silver fern and an unknown lacy fern. 

In testing out these screens, I used as a base a cloth that had previously served as a demo cloth. Nothing is ever wasted!

Here is the piece in progress.

When printing in this freeform manner I often go back and forth between printing and making tools as ideas occur. It is a fun way to work! 

I will be away from the work for a while, visiting family for spring break, but when i get back I will show you some more tools I am working on, and the way I incorporate them into the work. 

Come join us printing over in the Playful Fabric Printing Facebook community!

Back in the day…..when the world was a little bit more innocent…my BFF and I spent much of our summer days roaming all by ourselves in the neighborhood park. The park was bordered by a creek, where we spent many hours building dams and crossings in the cool green water with gold glinting highlights. Leafy trees arched overhead, and fallen branches because houses and forts. Mosses and ferny glades were our resting spots. 

My favorite vacations were spent in the redwoods in Santa Cruz, and up on the north coast of California, where ferns made the understory to the giant trees. 

Well, fast forward several decades, and I have just returned from a trip to New Zealand with this same friend—and my DH, and son and daughter-in-law. What a trip it was…a month long journey of adventure! 

During the trip, we enjoyed quite a few hikes— each unique, and yet each characterized by abundant greenery—especially ferns. Small ones, large ones, smooth ones, ripply ones, green ones, and even red ones. Do you recall the legend of the red fern? Planted by angels, the red fern will never die. 

Then there were tree ferns. . . towering tree ferns with cooling shady canopies . . . On the long hikes, the tree ferns kept the hot sun at bay with gently filtered light.

If you have been reading the blog or Facebook, you know that this month, Melly and I are hosting a Playful Fabric Print-Along in our Facebook community. (Join us here!) I decided for this Print-Along to use the theme of ferns, prompted by my New Zealand trip, but inspired by my lifelong ferny love.

Monoprints may be my favorite starting point with a natural subject. Seeing as here in upstate NY the only plants up from the ground are crocuses and snowdrops, at this moment I am limited to using leatherleaf ferns from the florist. Many surfaces can be used for monoprints, including glass, vinyl, a sheet of fun foam attached to a plexi plate, even Ikea placemats— but I chose my favorite—the gelli plate. Let the playful printing commence!

Several surfaces for monoprinting

I chose three greens from Playful Fabric Printing, mixed up the dye paste in two values, and away I went!

The colors of dye paste used in this stack of work

Warm-up print

Pulling the first print: see the ferns peeking out from under the cloth.

After the first print.

The work table.

Here are a few of the pieces I printed. 

I am envisioning some tools I want to make around this theme. In my next blog I will share the development of some tools with the fern theme.