My trip to the Osa Penisula, Costa Rica: Dyeing Tree Fibre and The Boruca by Sharon Grosh

Puerto Jimenez, Costa Rica: March, 2025

One interesting aspect of traveling to a more remote place is the surprise. We were traveling to a famous place which holds the last low lying, triple canopy rain forest in North America. Fifty years ago an effort to preserve this area from clearing this diminishing slice of life, represent thousands of species of animals and plants. This preserve is called Corcovado National Park. Many people were displaced and told leave the area to protect the preserve with a promise of compensation, including the Indigenous tribes.

Puerto Jimenez, Costa Rica, is a  small town close to the Corcovado National Park and has not changed in 20 years. Our small group went there to print and dye from plants we found near us. We ventured to a Saturday Flea Market and found a market, organized by two women who are working with the Boruca people, Artesanos Naturales, to sell a wide range of artwork. 

 

Boruca, are one of the many indigenous tribes in Costa Rica. They are located among the Talamanca Mountains 20 km from Panama. Like many other tribes, they struggle to keep their culture and traditions alive. Enabling spaces to honor and commemorate their culture has been an important inspiration for anyone interested in preserving culture.

What did we find?  A new fibre!

 

The Boruca people traditionally make fabric from tree bark using a process similar to bark cloth-making found in other cultures. The bark they use does not come from the outside , rough surface of the tree but comes from what they call, "inner bark." They select trees for this use that are softwood like, Ficus-Wild fig trees. I believe this not only provides them with a more malleable fiber but the tree can easily be regrown. I believe there is a lot more to know about this and I hope that more information can be collected.

The Process:

-  The inner bark is carefully removed from the tree.

-  The bark is soaked in water to soften the fibers.

-  The fibers are pounded using wooden mallets or stone tools to a flat, flexible sheet.

-  The pounded bark is stretched, dried and further softened by more pounding. 

-  The final fabric can be dyed with natural pigments.  

The Boruca also have a long tradition of hand-dying threads from naturally found colors from sources including leaves of the sangrilla tree, bark of the carbonero tree, clay, indigo plants, and occasionally the ink of a mollusk. 

My traditions run deep as well. I like to dip almost anything in an indigo vat. So I dipped this sweet miniature pocket book in my indigo vat. Letting the bark fibers soak for hours with the following result.                                                        

                                                             

Like everything else that is new, you want more. I hope to return and learn more next year about this tribe, about the women who founded the Flea Market and the great potential for plant prints and natural fabric dyes.  Click here for Sharon's website.

 by Sharon Grosh

Celebrating Spring by Dianne Koppisch Hricko

 Its Spring and time to celebrate with a new silk scarf.

I am working on a lovely crinkled silk crepe that feels great against your skin and holds color like crazy. 

The first layer of color are two slightly different yellow greens on a leaf screen. I am working with MX dye thickened with sodium alginate, the silk was soda soaked prior to printing. Here it is dry after a second layer of blue loops.

The stripes dry to a cherry blossomish pink. The freeform lines are Bosenberry. 

Dried and washed.

I love the pop of the orange serged edge. 

So much fun to see these colors on their own against the white and then how they play with others as they overlap. I find this endlessly intriguing and the original yellow green leaves just jump up through the intense blue violet stripes which were the last layer. I suspect that is because they got to the dye sites first and the techs at ProChemical and Dye agree. Then there is that beautiful grey that happened with the pink over lapped the azure blue.  Top it off with a serged orange edge. Chase away grey days of winter Yummy. 

Where Do We Go From Here? Paducah! by Mary Vaneecke

 I am thrilled to announce that Where Do We Go From Here? III is traveling to Paducah for the Yeiser Art Center's Fantastic Fibers exhibition, from March 18 - May 3.  The Yeiser is located at 200 Broadway St. in Paducah, Kentucky.  

The Where Do We Go From Here? series explores way-finding in a chaotic world.  The piece is inspired by a Wari textile in the collection of the Tucson Museum of Art.  Using the Japanese itajime method of dyeing fabric, I created this very contemporary version of a flying geese quilt.  

Where Do We Go From Here? III