Anthotypes

Finished anthotypes (first attempt)

 

I have been experimenting with anthotypes, largely as a result of seeing some on instagram - for example, here by @jellywithcream. An anthotype is a print made using a solution made from plant materials that are light sensitive.  It is a photographic process that John Herschel discovered in 1839 and Mary Somerville developed and documented it a few years later.  There's a very useful guide on the Alternative Processes website here.

The solution of plant material is applied to paper and when dry, an object is placed directly on the paper.  I have used leaves and flowers above but you could use keys, lace or solid objects. The paper and objects are then exposed to sunlight for a lengthy period.  It is important the objects don't move during this period if you want a clear print so trapping them under glass helps keep everything in place whilst allowing the sun's UV rays through.  The solution of plant material that I used was a combination of turmeric and alcohol which I painted onto a selection of papers.  The alcohol acts as a binder and allows the solution to be easily applied to the paper. The alcohol in this case was surgical spirit but I understand you can use vodka (or probably anything with a high alcohol content e.g. hand sanitiser - but I've only tried surgical spirit).  

My recipe was 2 tablespoons of turmeric powder dissolved in about 60 millilitres of surgical spirit.  This mixture then has to be filtered - coffee filters are suggested but I didn't have any so used tissue paper in a funnel dripping into a jam jar.  The result is a bright yellow solution which you can paint on to your paper.  I only applied one generous coat of turmeric solution but I have since read that several coats, left to dry in between each, would give the best results. You should not leave these to dry in bright sunlight but I found it wasn't necessary to put them in a darkened place.

These are some of the plants that I laid on the coated paper to make prints...

Leaves and flowers selected to make anthotypes

I tried printing on both sketch pad paper and khadi paper and later on fabric and cardboard too.  Paper that readily absorbs the solution works well...

Sketch pad paper and khadi paper

Here are the papers after they have been painted with the turmeric solution, with the the plant matter on top and then a sheet of glass to hold them in place.  I read that they need to be exposed to sunlight for 4-6 hours.  These prints were left for 6 hours on a very hot sunny day.  It is important not to try taking a peek earlier as you will inevitably disturb the plant matter which will affect the clarity of your print...

Flowers and leaves on paper painted with a solution of turmeric and alcohol under glass

The sun fades the exposed areas and the areas under the plant matter remain darker.  It is a selective bleaching process, creating a positive image of the object being printed...

Anthotypes after 6 hours

You could leave the prints like this, but when added to a bicarbonate of soda solution, the prints change colour to a reddish brown and I think it helps with the contrast so they seem clearer.  I used a solution of 4 teaspoons of bicarbonate of soda dissolved in 250ml of warm water.  The prints were left in for about a minute which might be too long if the paper is fragile.  This solution may improve their light fastness but won't stop them fading over time.

Anthotype in a solution of bicarbonate of soda

The anthotypes were left to dry after they'd been in the bicarbonate of soda solution on baking paper.  When they were finally dry and removed they left these interesing patterns on the baking paper...

Baking paper after anthotypes removed

Here are some more of the finished anthotypes I made...

Finished anthotypes on paper and cardboard

Finished anthotypes on calico

They worked well on fabric and less well on cardboard.  However, I had diluted the solution for these and again only used one coat so I think the original solution and several coats would have given better results.

These prints remain light sensitive or "fugitive" and will fade if left in direct sunlight, so are best kept in darker places.  I hope to make some more anthotypes and use them in card-making and to use the fabric based ones in some textile work.  

Let me know how you get on if you give it a go. You can use other plant materials, e.g. beetroot, berries and spinach, to make these type of prints but they may take several days to develop.  If the plant material is very watery you may not need to use a binder.  Happy experimenting! 

For the Love of Textiles - Sunny Bank Mills, Farsley

Grenfell Memorial Quilt - Do Caged Birds Dream of Flying?

 

For the Love of Textiles, currently showing at Sunny Bank Mills, Farsley, explores the loving connections humans have with textiles. It includes work by contemporary artists, garments and archival pieces from textile collections.

The largest and most striking single piece is a panel from the Grenfell Memorial Quilt - Do Caged Birds Dream of Flying? Tuesday Greenidge and her team from the North Kensington community created the Grenfell Memorial Quilt Project.  They hope to create a quilt as long as the tower was tall  - 220 feet, by 2027. This particular panel of the Grenfell Memorial Quilt has been led by Jane Thakoordin and draws inspiration from Maya Angelou's Caged Bird poem.  It features a bird for each of the 72 victims of the Grenfell Tower fire.  These were made by people from across the UK who responded to Jane's call out...

Grenfell Memorial Quilt - Do Caged Birds Dream of Flying?

Kate Tume's Death Masks were very striking.  We are told they are deities of grief, each representing a facet of love lost and are inspired by the death of her husband.  They are not only sculptures but ritual masks to be worn so the wearer can be transformed...

Kate Tume - Death Masks
Cotton, wire mesh, embellishments
 & Sam Winter & Kate Tume - Threshold: Ghost I, II & III
Photography on aluminium

Sarah Joy Ford had contacted Angela Maddock, textile artist & academic, to repair her childhood rabbits - John and Peter. Their restoration was documented in photographs, replaced stuffing and the water they were cleaned with, whilst Sarah Joy Ford made 2 new pieces celebrating her white rabbits...

Angela Maddock - John and Peter in the Care of Angela Maddock
Sarah Joy Ford - The White Rabbits

We are told that Julie Henry and Debbie Bragg working as Henry/Bragg highlighted the erosion of working class culture and the human longing for escapism.  For Dyed in the Wool, they invited a die hard fan from the football teams featured and got them to design a cardigan to represent their team.  Unlike mass produced merchandise these feature elements of local identity. They were knitted by the WI.  They are now part of the permanent collection of the National Football Museum in Manchester...

Henry/Bragg - Dyed in the Wool
Handknit Cardigans (from front) Leeds United, Middlesborough, Aston Villa

This lace from Nana-Essi Casely-Hayford's wedding fabric was beautiful but I was particularly taken by the poem that was displayed with it (shown below)...

Nana-Essi's Ghanaian Wedding Fabric
Loaned by Nana-Essi Casely-Hayford from her personal collection

Poem from the display of Nana-Essi's Ghanaian Wedding Fabric
Loaned by Nana-Essi Casely-Hayford from her personal collection

These wedding shoes are part of the Joseph Box collection of shoes and objects relating to shoemaking (1500 to 1920), which provides a unique insight into footwear history.  They are handmade and rather lovely...

Joseph Box Victorian Wedding Shoes
Loaned by Sarah Buckroyd from Powerhouse Collection

I was quite taken with this knitted ensemble but didn't spot any information about it...

Knitted Dress

This is just a sample of what is on display.  If you want to see more, the exhibition is on until 28 June 2026 - Tuesday to Sunday, 10am to 4pm.  There are cafes at Sunny Bank Mills, various shops and a ScrapStore.  It's a great place to visit.  If you plan to visit the ScrapStore, check opening hours before you go.

Touchlines - 62 Group - Sunny Bank Mills, Farsley

Louise Baldwin - The moments that I can't recall (detail), 2026 

 

Touchlines: The Delicate Boundaries of Care and Cloth is this year's 62 Group exhibition at Sunny Bank Mills in Farsley.  In Touchlines, we are told, "artists explore the subtle thresholds where contact is felt, withheld, or transformed. Set within the historic spaces of Sunny Bank Mills, the exhibition draws connections between textile labour, sporting cultures, and human relationships, asking how boundaries shape intimacy, care, and collective identity."

Here are some of my favourites...

Using old tickets, books, cards, packaging etc., Louise Baldwin has created a new work of layered relationships...

Louise Baldwin - The moments that I can't recall, 2026
Collected paper, card, and fabric elements with wood and beads; machine-stitched modules, hand stitching and glued construction

Debbie Lyddon's The Breath of the Moon maps the contours of a day's tides. The title comes from the Venerable Bede, who noticed a connection between the moon and tides and called it the breathings of the moon.  I love the title of this piece.

Debbie Lyddon - The Breath of the Moon, 2026
Linen, beeswax, linseed oil, wire, pulled threads, machine and hand stitch

Hannah Lamb makes the point that "duty of care" often misses out caring for the carers.  The patching and darning on this piece represents self care as the apron disintegrates. Perhaps it's time to re-evaluate who we value in society...

Hannah Lamb -  Duty of Care II, 2022
Vintage linen apron, silk organza, applique, hand stitch, machine stitch, devore

Helen Davies tells us that sometimes the only way to effect change is through disorder and nothing unites a community like a common goal.  Her work references the 1842 General Strike where workers across Lancashire & Yorkshire unplugged the boilers in mills and factories...

Helen Davies - National Union of Had Enough of This Shite, 2026
Cotton thread, synthetic thread

Helen Banzhaf's coat shows how important it is for pattern pieces to fit together to create the final form...

Helen Banzhaf - Salad Servers and the Odd Fish Slice, 2026
10 oz unprimed cotton canvas, assembled as a coat using various threads with stitched applique shapes

Hazel Bruce uses an old linen roller towel as a background for patches of colour and stitch to give it a new life...

Hazel Bruce - The beginning of something new? 2025
Huckaback linen roller towel, reclaimed fabric remnants, machine stitch

In Eszter Bornemisza's piece, her people are made of map fragments and linked by a network of streets, representing human connectedness...

Eszter Bornemisza - Icon-Maze, 2023
Organza, vintage ribbons, newsprint, tissue, threads, printing, cutting machine stitching

Helen Yardley uses the game of rugby as her inspiration with the physicality of the friction and pressure of the game echoed in her medium and representation...

 

Helen Yardley - Lineout, 2026
Cut and pieced 3mm industrial wool felt, hand stitched, screen printed, machine stitched and hand painted. Mounted onto a wooden stretcher frame.

Claire Barber's piece, part of which is shown below, made of melted shoelaces, heather and chalk represents how plastics infiltrate out environment...

Claire Barber - Sweepings (detail), 2026
Melted shoelaces, heather, chalk, stone, pins, broom, sugar palm fibres

Hannah White's work, through electroforming, transforms something soft into something rigid and she sees this as a metaphor for building human resilience over time...

Hannah White - Woven Touchlines, 2026
Woven, hand pleated and hand stitched, Trevira and stainless-steel threads, electroformed, nickel-plated

Mei Lock says her parents demonstrate their love through what they do rather than what they say.  Here, using her parents' clothes and one of her Mum's recipes, she demonstrates their actions of love and care...

 

Mei Lock - Love Languages, 2026
Cotton apron, denim jeans, wooden chair spindles and thread, hand stitch

And finally, with humour but also with a point, here is Lynn Setterington's Gary on the Touchline. The traditional twee subjects of needlepoint are subverted and we have instead, Gary Lineker, a pundit as famous for his humanitarian views on refugees and asylum seekers as his football commentary. The question is, will Lynn Setterington ever stitch it?

Lynn Setterington - Gary on the Touchline, 2026
Canvas work print with coloured threads

And because everyone wants to touch everything but can't - there is a touching table...

Samples that could be examined and touched

There were, of course, many other interesting works too. The exhibition runs until 31st May 2026, on the 3rd floor, in the 1912 Mill at Sunny Bank Mills, 83-85 Town Street, Farsley, West Yorkshire, LS28 5UJ. Open Thursday-Sunday 10am to 4pm. Go see.  

There are cafes at Sunny Bank Mills, various shops and a ScrapStore.  It's a great place to visit.  Check opening hours before visiting.

Laetitzia Campbell - On Your Way Home, What Did You Find? - David Parr House, Cambridge

Laetitzia Campbell - Yesterday's Light, 2025
Screen print, machine-embroidery, hand-embroidery on linen
Cotton & polyester thread

 

Laetitzia Campbell's On Your Way Home, What Did You Find? is currently showing  at the David Parr House in Gwydir Street, Cambridge until 23 May 2026.  Laetitzia Campbell is a British-French textile artist with Jamaican heritage.  We are told that the works in this exhibition draw on Campbell's father's childhood journey home from school in Jamaica, evoking memories that shape our sense of home.

Laetitzia Campbell - Memories of Calmer Times, 2025
Machine and hand-embroidery on cotton
Cotton & polyester thread

Her works are shown alongside the Richard Hopkins Leach travel journal, which also records a journey...

A Journal with Delineations of Nature Principally of Cornwall; Journal of the Tour, 1814
Richard Hopkins-Leach - Illustrated & Handwritten Journal

My favourite of the Campbell's pieces is Yesterday's Light (top image) which is mostly hand stitched and is a sizeable piece.

Laetitzia Campbell - Sombre Metamorphosis iii, 2025
Machine and hand-embroidery on cotton
Cotton & polyester thread

The pieces that are machine stitched use a zigzag stitch which is unusual in machine stitched textile art as a free-machined straight stitch is more common.

Laetitzia Campbell - Bright Night Sun, 2025
Machine and hand-embroidery on cotton
Cotton & polyester thread

The David Parr House is a typical Cambridge terraced house with an amazing hand-painted interior. It was home to the Victorian working-class artist David Parr and his family for over 125 years. As a rare surviving example of Arts and Crafts workmanship in a modest domestic setting,  it is well worth a visit. The David Parr House is a short walk from Cambridge main station (15 minutes) and is just off Mill Road on Gwydir Street.  Sustenance is available at the very pleasant Hot Numbers cafe on Gwydir Street or any number of places on Mill Road including Mill Mediterranean Coffee Spot.

Mill Mediterranean Coffee Spot

You can visit the exhibition and the shop anytime from Wednesday to Saturday, 10am to 5pm but if you want to visit the house, which is very interesting, you have to book a timed ticket (Thursday to Saturday).

Thread - Sarah Myerscough Gallery, London

Wycliffe Stutchbury - Shore Road (detail), 2025
Salvaged western red cedar shingles on cotton twill

 

At the Sarah Myerscough Gallery in London, we are told that this is an exhibition of contemporary woven work but I think the title "Thread" sums it up better. Nineteen international artists show their work here deriving their "thread" from recycled rubber, roots, flax, feathers, cotton, raffia, reeds and more.  On until the 16 May 2026, this exhibition is definitely worth a look.  Here are some of my favourites...

Wycliffe Stutchbury - Shore Road, 2025
Salvaged western red cedar shingles on cotton twill

I loved the variation in colours, shapes and textures of Stutchbury's piece

Diana Scherer - Apical #6, 2025
Plant root textile and jute

Diana Scherer's work is fascinating.  She develops her root textile pieces by growing her plants through specially designed moulds.

Lucy Williams - Where things rest, 2026
Californian pine needles, lapping cane, dried seaweed, mixed leaves, wood, linen, cotton mixed seeds and flax thread

Lucy Williams' small scale forms were quite a contrast to a lot of the large scale work on show.  I wanted to pick them up and examine them.

Patrick Bongoy - In the Wind, 2026
Rubber inner tubing, valves on board

Patrick Bongoy's pieces had a certain amount of drama and looked like creatures about to approach. They are created from strips of recycled inner tubing, braided, woven and stitched.

Taylor Kibby -Double Skin 14, 2025 
Terracotta, embroidery thread, steel wire and glass beads

I was amazed to discover that Taylor Kibby's pieces, which looked like knitting from a distance, were actually made of terracotta.

Aude Franjou - Forest Nests
Sculpted linen dyed in shades of green

Aude Franjou's linen fibre, wrapped in linen twine, looked like sinuous roots and were indeed intended to look like plant forms.

Ann Coddington - Constellation, Set 1, 2025
Mixed Fibres

Ann Coddington uses a number of techniques to make her basket-like forms, some of which resemble parts of the body.

Annette Mills - Both Sides Now, 2026,
Jute, willow bark, waxed twine & raffia,
Enclosed 3, 2025
Willow, willow bark, daffodil leaf, linen, jute, raffia & cane
 Enclosed 2, 2025
Willow, daffodil leaf and cane

Annette Mills densely layers her plant materials using basketry techniques

Lin Fanglu - She's Hill No 2, 2023
Cotton cloth and cotton thread

Lin Fanglu, winner of the 2021 Loewe prize, has gathered, wrapped and sculpted her cloth into a varied series of forms.  Everytime you look you see something new.

The Sarah Myerscough Gallery is at 18 Balderton Street, London which is not far from Selfridges.  It doesn't have a typical gallery front - you can't see the work from the street.  You have to ring a doorbell and be buzzed in.  Don't let this put you off as the exhibition is well worth a visit.

Textile Art Redefined - Saatchi Gallery London

Ian Berry - The Secret Garden, 2026
Denim on denim

 

On until 10 May 2026, Textile Art Redefined is a free, one room, textile art exhibition at the Saatchi Gallery in London.  It's curated by Helen Adams (@textilecurator), author of Fine Art Textiles: Conversations with Artists Creating by Hand.  Adams is a great advocate for contemporary textile art.

Ian Berry - The Secret Garden, 2026

The exhibition showcases the work of over a dozen international textile artists. Here are some of my favourite pieces.  Most striking when you walk in, is Ian Berry's denim collage, The Secret Garden, which occupies one whole wall.  Up close it's fascinating, with more to see everytime you look.  It makes great use of the tonal variations of denim using both the front and back to give even greater variety. Looking carefully you can see the layers of denim collaged together.

Chiachio & Giannone - Conversacion sobre arte, 2022
Hand embroidered with cotton threads on toile de Jouy, quilt

I particularly liked Conversacion sobre arte, 2022 by Chiachio & Giannone, more for the sum of the parts than the overall composition.

Chiachio & Giannone - Conversacion sobre arte (detail), 2022

Jenni Dutton -  Then a Moment Later She Smiled
Dementia Darnings  series, 2017
Fine wools sewn through bobbinet

Jenni Dutton's portrait of her mother during the progression of her dementia is both wonderful - so realistic - and incredibly sad.  I have seen the Dementia Darnings before and find them almost too difficult to look at.

Magda Sayeg - The Machine Gun, 2017
Replica of a Bushmaster XM15-E2S, acrylic mix triple worsted yarn, vintage children's sweaters
& Yoga Balls, 2025
Acrylic yarn , inflated PVC ball

I must include Magda Sayeg who set the world yarnstorming (knitted & crocheted graffiti), including me, after which I embarked on several successful commmunity art yarnstorming projects.

Simone Pheulpin - Lune de Bois ll, Croissance Series, 2025
Cotton folds & pins

I think Simone Pheulpin's piece looks just like a tree trunk cross section and must have taken hours as it is held together with pins.

Deniz Kurdak - Dysregulated, 2026
Polyester thread on duck canvas

Deniz Kurdak has created this beautiful piece of machine embroidery.

Anne Von Freyburg - In Flight Mode (after Fragonard, The Swing), 2021
Textile wall installation painting: acrylic ink, synthetic fabrics, PVC fabric, tapestry fabric, sequin fabrics, hand embroidery, polyester wadding, and hand dyed tassel fringes on canvas

This enormous, colourful & clever piece would have benefitted from a picture of Fragonard's The Swing for reference.  You can see a picture of it here.

Other work on show included a great text piece by Sara Impey, tulle portraits by Benjamin Shine, colourful pieces by Signe Emdal, Kaffe Fasset & Kenny Nguyen.  You can also see pieces by Caroline Burgess & Jakkai Siributr.

The Saatchi Gallery has a number of exhibitions showing.  Some are free, some not.  There are lots of coffee shops and restaurants close by.  You can find the gallery on the King's Road, a short walk from Sloane Square tube.  You've still time to go see this exhibition and it's well worth going.

On a wall on the King's Road
Fashion is not frivolous it is part of being alive today - Mary Quant