Recipe for pattern

I've started to make patterns on my allotments. I want to find out what makes a good pattern

Here is one of my best patterns - a co-design between gardener and grass. All the best patterns seem to be a collaboration

chance + place + time = magic

But you have to find a pattern to start with in the first place. I was inspired to try and grow my own pattern using a carpet pattern that meant a lot to me.  My first experiment was with with cress

I used a simple stencil to make these patterns with pigment - I wanted to watch them change with time. Everything alters with time and weather on the allotment.

 

Stinky and Isabelle have shared their own patterns with me - these are inspired by the sweet chestnuts we planted as well as a great dress Stinky wears alot. I'm hoping to make patterns with other allotment friends too

Another way of getting under the skin of pattern is to project it. Karin helped me to make these projections onto carpet, metal and wood.

I've got to find a way of capturing my patterns at some stage of their life-cycle. So I have been printing them as a resist and then dying them with indigo. I'm printing onto found fabric - it has been loved before and adding another unknown pattern story into the mix is thrilling.

So far my recipe for pattern is something like this

1. TAKE a pattern which inspires you
2. PUT it in a place that is special to you - grow it, project it with light, stencil with pigment
3. WATCH your pattern change with the weather, time and chance
4. EXPLORE how smells, tastes, sounds and other feelings enter and transform your pattern
5. IMAGINE ways of capturing your pattern through this shifting cycle

The best patterns are always changing because they are ALIVE