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Sarah Lazarus lives in Sydney where she practises textile art. She is fascinated with the process of extracting the colour from Australian Eucalyptus leaves and transferring these dyes to cloth. Natural fibres, such as silk and wool, are used in this process.
This technique is called botanical-dyeing, or eco-dyeing. It uses heat to draw out the natural pigments of leaves and other plant material to make marks that penetrate the cloth. It is a form of printing, where the natural colours of the leaves are the inks that make the designs.
Having lived in Indonesia, Sarah has studied batik, indigo-dyeing and botanical dyeing there and her work is influenced by her love of Indonesian aesthetics. For the last twelve years Sarah has been experimenting with natural dyes. She uses leaves and barks collected from her local area and has fun exploring the extraordinary range of colours and designs that can be extracted from the foliage.
Among the range of textiles Sarah creates are scarves, dresses, tops, and Australian landscapes comprising appliqued pieces of eco-dyed fabric.
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