Nature inspires ‘dye-namic’ artist

Textile artist Geraldine Jones

Pomegranate peels, onion skins and eucalyptus leaves are just a few of the materials artist Geraldine Jones uses to create scarves, wall-hangings, clothing fabric and throw blankets. Her home and atelierare located close to where the Gironde, Dordogne and Lot-et-Garonne departments converge. 

“I consider all three departments to be my neighborhood,” Jones says.

Geraldine Jones at work in her atelier,

Before Jones and her husband Pete settled in France two decades ago, they lived far from Geraldine’s birthplace of Yorkshire, England. Pete’s job required a lot of travel, and they raised their three children in exotic locales including the South Pacific, Papua New Guinea, East Africa and Australia. 

“For many years I worked in several tropical countries teaching movement, dance and art while at the same time developing an enthusiastic interest in the decoration of fabric,” Jones says.

Vegetable skins and leaves are some of the ingredients in Geraldine Jones’s
natural dyes.

Building upon her formal music training in England, Jones attended workshops in Paris, Sydney, Halifax and Edinburgh where she developed a range of fabric-dying techniques.

Detail of Geraldine Jones’s workshop

Her art is continually evolving. Nowadays, Jones opts for natural dyes derived from plants that grow in this area.

On the afternoon of my visit, she carefully unwraps a long swath of soft, fine-quality Merino wool in which a variety of leaves and pedals as well as a shard of steel have been tightly bound. 

Artist Geraldine Jones prepares to unroll recently dyed fabric.

“You never know exactly what you’re going to get,” Jones tells me. Despite the element of surprise, Jones’s art, particularly the wall-hangings, are abstracts conveying time, place and emotions.

In a notebook, she keep track of the various dye materials, soaking times and reactions to the dyes on different fabrics. With 28 years experience — and experimentation — in dye arts, there’s a lot to remember.

Her workshop contains samples of art she has created through the years including a painted silk shawl inspired by the colors of the South Pacific and a velvet jacket on which she created designs using the devore technique where fabric is etched. 

On working with plant dyes, Jones says the nose is an important tool.

“I can smell when the extraction is ready or has over-cooked,” she says.

Fabric art with colors derived from plants by Geraldine Jones

I first met Jones at a holiday craft fare in 2013 where I bought one of her lovely silk scarves with swirls of blue and brown. Jones says she is doing fewer craft fairs these days as there often is not enough space to display her pieces. She is getting ready for an upcoming exposition in Saint Avit-Sénieur.

A handy felt sack contains a hand-dyed scarf.

The exposition includes Jones and two other artists: Judy Pickering and Ann Stephens. The trio will share their mutual interest in fiber as an expression of art. The exhibit takes place at the Presbytère in Saint Avit Sénieur (24) from 2-6 p.m. Tuesdays through Sundays, Aug. 25 through Sept. 6, 2015. It is sponsored by the Association Saint Avit Sénieur Arts; information about the ASASA can be found on the organization’s website here.