Mrs Leather Creates: Handmade Homewares and Textile Art Created from Natural Fibres

Hand made homewares and textile art created from natural fibres printed with handmade natural dyes, botanical prints and cyanotype photograms.

The maker: Helen Lunn. Born, raised and continue to live in Sale, a residential suburb south of Manchester UK. Making has been a constant in my life along with an interest in the environment. Looking at the everyday with a fresh eye, sometimes to the surprise of others. My dining table for a while was a “ Black and Decker” work bench topped with glass. Drawn to the striking orange of the logo and light wood frame. On my mantle piece a tiny stick with beautiful chartreuse and sage lichen resting on a piece of broken pottery found in the garden.

There is beauty in the everyday, the cast aside, broken things. Rusty bits, pebbles, leaves. I’m drawn by the colours, patterns and textures. I wanted to encapture the nature of these foundling objects with my other constant friend, fabric. Attending workshops and then experimenting and exploring with natural dyes and cyanotypes I moved from simply sewing and embroidery onto fabric to creating pattern and design into fabric.

I’m now able to capture the colours, patterns, and textures of the environment using handmade dyes from kitchen waste, local botanicals, rusty treasures and photograms of found objects in cyanotype.

Natural fibres are mordanted to fix fast leaf prints, rust patterns and natural handmade dyes. I mix my own cyanotype solutions and create pattern in this medium with feathers, botanicals and lace. Currently I’m exploring how I can incorporate paper into my work as another fabric.

Each piece of fabric is handmade as is the item it becomes, such as cushions, lampshades, bags, scarfs. Later in the year I hope to include note books and other stationery products.
Each item is unique. The processes dictate that.

Through my products I hope to pass on my love and enthusiasm for creating beauty and a second life from the old, worn out and broken around our everyday.
The fabrics I use are in the main charity shop sourced, freecycle and sales. If new and where I can, organic and ethically produced. Botanicals are from my kitchen waste, the garden, local parks or places I’ve visited.

Beware it’s addictive! My husband will come home from work with presents of rusty bits and pieces found on his way to work and fill a bag with red onion skins he’s foraged at the supermarket!

Helen’s work is featured in the The Eco Crafters and Entrepreneurs’ Award section of the Autumn Issue 2018.

The latest issue of the print magazine packed with interviews and features on eco and heritage artists and artisans is available now.

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