Indigo show featured at Trinidad gallery

The cooperative Trinidad Art Gallery is featuring the work of two members in September. Patty Demant is a fabric artist and Drew Forsell is a jeweler.

The Trinidad Art Gallery is now open with COVID-19 precautions in place and masks required. Visitors will be greeted by a gallery member.

Botanical printing is Demant’s form of creative play. An old fiber art, it was brought back into fashion by artist India Flint. When Demant attended a weekend class with Flint 10 years ago, she fell in love with the process of printing with leaves on natural fibers such as silk, wool and cashmere. This multi-step process can take up to a week to complete.

Demant arranges her botanicals such as eucalyptus, alder, maple, oak, black walnut and sycamore onto fabric that has been mordanted with elements of alum, iron and tannins. She then wraps it tightly around wooden dowels or copper piping, simmers for two hours, then opens it the next day to create scarves and clothing.

This year, Demant experimented with combining rust printing and indigo dye to discover a beautiful partner in botanical prints.

“Indigo dying dates back thousands of years with each region of the world having its own unique methods,” Demant said. “Lifting fabric from an indigo vat, watching it turn from yellow to blue as it oxidizes is a magical experience. Drew Forsell and I are pairing the blue of his labradorite jewelry with my indigo fabric to present unique wearable art, all one of a kind.”

Forsell’s part in this indigo project is to be emphasizing his deep blue jewelry.

“I’ll be working with labradorite in all of its auroraboreal loveliness. Like the lodolite that I use in my shaman’s dream stone necklaces, labradorite is also a dreamer’s stone and is said to aid in creativity and intuition, as well as offering protection against negativity,” he said.

Forsell will also show a large selection of his silver-wire-set shaman’s dream stones and a selection of his work that features lapis, druzy and apatite in various shades of blue. He’ll be working in sterling silver as always but also offering works in raw copper, raw brass and 14k gold-fill to complement the rich earth tones of Demant’s botanical textiles.

For more information about the artists, call 707-677-3770 or visit trinidadartgallery.com.