Botanical Printing With Kayla Powers
Everyone has a subject they return to: a
craft, a pastime, a passion. In this series, we step aside and let others share
theirs, in their own words.
Kayla Powers is a
place-based artist and naturalist who creates ecologically focused textile art
with and about the living world. Through foraging, dyeing, weaving, and
stitching, her work explores the common threads of our shared humanity,
creating connections to the earth, to craft, and to each other.
There’s something deeply grounding about working with materials gathered by hand. For Kayla, botanical printing is more than a technique. It’s a way of connecting to place, seasonality, and the living world around her.
Using foraged flowers, roots, leaves, and seeds, Kayla creates one-of-a-kind prints by steaming botanicals directly into fabric, revealing soft, organic patterns. The process is slow, tactile, and rooted in reciprocity with nature.
Step-by-step
- Begin with a piece of fabric made from natural materials like cotton, linen, or silk. Give the fabric a hot bath with some Alum (you can find this at the grocery store in the spice section).
- Rinse well.
- Go for a walk and collect plants! Please be mindful when you’re picking flowers or leaves off of a plant. Never take more than you need and give something (water, soil, or native seeds) in return.
- Lay the fabric flat on a table and arrange the plants on top.
- Using a stick, roll the fabric and plants tightly and tie with a string all up and down the bundle.
- Steam in a pot for 15-20 minutes.
- Let it cool! Unroll it, shake the plants into your garden and use an iron to heat set.
- Wear your Botanical Print fabric as a bandana in your hair or around your neck.
What does botanical printing mean to you?
Botanical Printing is a technique I use often in my practice. I forage flowers, roots, leaves, and seeds and wrap them tightly in fabric to create some really beautiful and unique patterns. Through this process, I’m cultivating a relationship with place and exploring temporality.
What’s a tradition or memory that remind you of home?
I live in a tiny cabin in the High Desert with my partner and our dog, Maple. When I come home from my studio each day, Maple comes running out to greet me which is just the best welcome home.
