Dyeing as a place-making practice: Examining human-environment relations through foraging practices in southern Finland

The seriousness of the environmental impact of textile dyeing practices has pushed the need to explore different ways of working with colour. A relevant part of research on biocolourants has focused on meeting current colour standards through explorations in lab or studio settings without considering the complex ecological relations in the places where biocolourants grow. Working with foraged dyestuffs in turn offers the opportunity to understand dyeing from a place-based perspective, where colours emerge from the entanglements between the dyers and the environment. The article examines foraging and dyeing practices using practice-led research and autoethnographic methods and studies the author's relations with the forest areasin Delivered by Vanhankaupunginlahti Intellect to: and Kalkkiranta in southern Finland. By creating a colour library using foraged biocolourants that grow in a particular ecosystem, dyers can learn about the environments they inhabit through movement and sensory engagement, and this knowledge can inform their understanding of dyeing and colour in textiles. The article argues that dyers can engage with the landscape by learning to notice and correspond with the ongoing change of dyestuffs through walking and observation. When foraging, the agency and intentions of the dyer become compromised by the limits of the environment. This questions the place of colour in design practice, where palettes are usually decided without considering the ecologies of dyestuffs. Working with foraged biocolourants for dyeing textiles can trigger the imagination and find ways to coordinate colour-making processes with the rhythms of the environment.