Deborah Gray

Meet the guest speakers from Indonesia for the upcoming online #EcoCreativeCluster event (link in bio). The second guest is Sodiqin @batikmekarcanting . Sodiquin is a batik artist and natural dyer based in Kampung Laut village in the Cilacap Regency of the southwestern part of Central Java province of Indonesia. He also leads the Mekar Canting Batik Group, a collective composed mostly of local women. In 2015, with two neighbors, Sodiqin started to experiment with natural-dyeing techniques and materials to make batik textile, using locally available plants - first Ketapang leaves and Jengkol tree bark, then fallen Rhizopora mangrove fruits scattered on the roads. As well as the traditional and more efficient stamping technique, Sodiqin and his group work on hand-drawn technique to make batik, using a tool called a canting. Their works distinctively feature fish, crabs, shells, shrimp, mangrove fruits, underwater scenes, reflecting the landscape that shapes Kampung Laut: mangroves and fisheries. In this episode, we meet two groups from Indonesia, whose collaborative partnership intersects environmental activism and natural dyeing, through mangrove: Sodiqin and @trees4trees , a non-profit foundation renewing the environment and empowering local communities through reforestation and education. With a Q&A with audience. 📆 Sun 17 May 2026 ⏰ 11:00-12:15 (UK Time), 17:00-18:15 (Western Indonesian Time) 🎟️ Free ticket: tinyurl.com/y96zynxk (link in bio) 🧑‍💻 Online, all welcome Translation support: Gladhys Elliona Syahutari @gladhys Images: Trees4Trees 🌳🌳🌳 Established in 2020, EcoCreative Cluster has been focusing on natural dyes, pigments and the use of natural materials in creative practices. Grounded in the creation and ongoing cultivation of a community dye garden at @therockfieldcentre in Oban, it provides workshops and learning opportunities for the local community, led by textile artist @deborah.gray7 and invited tutors. The project also has an international network weaving dimension led by curator @naokomabon , including collaborations and online conversation series with practitioners across the world. #Trees4Trees #Sodiqin #Mangrove #Indonesia

FLAX sown today at the #ecocreativecluster #dyegarden in #oban . Thank you @naokomabon and Fiona for your help and company. Only two small beds but 🤞. It allegedly takes 100 days from sowing to harvest. More homegrown textiles - linen this time. Watch this space!!

Meet the guest speakers from Indonesia for the upcoming online #EcoCreativeCluster event (link in bio). The first guest is @trees4trees . Trees4Trees is a non-profit foundation that focuses on renewing the environment and empowering local communities across Indonesia through planting trees, education, and related activities. Mangroves produce oxygen, absorb CO2, prevent coastal erosion, and provide essential nurseries for fish. Since 2022, Trees4Trees with their partners and supporters has been planting over 190,000 mangroves in Kampung Laut to restore areas degraded by deforestation. Kampung Laut, meaning “ocean village” in the Indonesian language, is home to the largest mangrove ecosystem in Central Java, surrounded by over 8,000 hectares of coastal trees and wetlands. In this episode, we meet two groups from Indonesia, whose collaborative partnership intersects environmental activism and natural dyeing, through mangrove: Trees4Trees and Sodiqin, a batik artist and natural dyer @batikmekarcanting . So humbled that Trees4Trees allocates their fee for this event as a tree donation under the EcoCreative Cluster name: around 50-60 trees will be planted in their working area. An e-certificate and a World Identification Number to track them on trees4trees.org will be issued🤩🙏 With a Q&A with audience. 📆 Sun 17 May 2026 ⏰ 11:00-12:15 (UK Time), 17:00-18:15 (Western Indonesian Time) 🎟️ Free ticket: tinyurl.com/y96zynxk (link in bio) 🧑‍💻 Online, all welcome Translation support: Gladhys Elliona Syahutari @gladhys Image courtesy: Trees4Trees 🌳🌳🌳 Established in 2020, EcoCreative Cluster has been focusing on natural dyes, pigments and the use of natural materials in creative practices. Grounded in the creation and ongoing cultivation of a community dye garden at @therockfieldcentre in Oban, it provides workshops and learning opportunities for the local community, led by textile artist @deborah.gray7 and invited tutors. The project also has an international network weaving dimension led by curator @naokomabon , including collaborations and online conversation series with practitioners across the world. #Trees4Trees #Sodiqin #Mangrove #Indonesia

Earth Matters At Edinburgh Botanics today - an inspiring exhibition of works inspired by and often made from soil. And a beautiful day for a stroll in the gardens which are looking splendid. #earthmatters #rbgedinburgh #soilart

📣🤩🌳Save the date for... EcoCreative Cluster: Conversations With Artists series episode 015: Mangrove conservation and batik-making with mangrove dye - cross-disciplinary collaboration between Trees4Trees and Sodiqin in Indonesia. In this episode, we will meet the team from Trees4Trees @trees4trees and a batik artist Sodiqin from Indonesia. They will talk about their practices, centring the recent collaboration with each other involving mangrove conservation and batik making using mangrove dye in Kampung Laut village in the Cilacap Regency of the southwestern part of Central Java province in Indonesia. Trees4Trees is a non-profit foundation that focuses on renewing the environment and empowering local communities across Indonesia through planting trees, education, and related activities. Sodiqin is a batik artist and a natural dyer based in Kampung Laut, who also leads the Mekar Canting Batik Group @batikmekarcanting , a collective composed mostly of women. 📆 Sunday 17 May 2026 ⏰ 11:00-12:15 (UK Time), 17:00-18:15 (Western Indonesian Time) 🎟️ Free ticket: tinyurl.com/y96zynxk (link in bio) 🧑‍💻 Online via Zoom, all welcome There will be a Q&A with audience members. Translation support: Gladhys Elliona Syahutari @gladhys Image courtesy of Trees4Trees. 🌳🌳🌳 Established in 2020, EcoCreative Cluster has been focusing on natural dyes, pigments and the use of natural materials in creative practices. Grounded in the creation and ongoing cultivation of a community dye garden at @therockfieldcentre in Oban, it provides workshops and learning opportunities for the local community, led by textile artist @deborah.gray7 and invited tutors. The project also has an international network weaving dimension led by curator @naokomabon , including collaborations and online conversation series with practitioners across the world. #EcoCreativeCluster #Trees4Trees #Sodiqin #Mangrove #Indonesia

Madder and Ladies’ Bedstraw roots harvested yesterday at the #ecocreativecluster #dyegarden in Oban. Both give red dyes. #madderdye #madderroots #madderred Now drying at @artspaceoban

Yesterday Fiona and I plied the #nettlefibreyarn we had prepared with the other #ecocreativecluster members @naokomabon @peden.mandy and @sheilatheshaper . We made a bit more progress on our Nettle Circle tapestries at @artspaceoban

All set up for my Secrets, Illusions and Code workshop for the #grocerygirlsknit knitting tour hosted by @knittingtours at the Lovat Hotel, Fort Augustus. With a chance to squish some of my #naturallydyed yarns dyed at @artspaceoban

My workplace for today, the Lovat Hotel at Fort Augustus where I am teaching a knitting workshops for the #grocerygirlsknit knitting tour hosted by @knittingtours

Great day of tapestry weaving! We, the members of #EcoCreativeCluster project - @deborah.gray7 , @sheilatheshaper , Mandy, Fiona and @naokomabon - had a fantastic day of tapestry weaving workshop led by @louiseoppenheimer , an Argyll-based artist who specialises in hand-woven tapestry. Since 2024, we have been exploring the use of nettles for fibre. Following a successful masterclass with @hedgerow.couture (featured in The Nettle Dress film by @dylanhowitt ) in Oban last year, we collectively have prepared, processed, and handspun stinging nettles into yarn. And in this season, we are making a series of seven tapestries with these nettle yarns. The tapestries also incorporate wool yarn which we naturally dyed last year during a 2025 research project based on archive material at @dunolliemuseumcastle , in collaboration with the Irish artist @lyndsey_mcdougall . Across seven panels, the tapestries will show a scene inspired by the folk story “The Wild Swans,” which features shirts woven with nettle yarn. Although tapestry weaving is a completely new venture and skill to most of our group, thanks to Louise’s expert guidance and generous hospitality, we managed to start the process in such a relaxed and inspiring way. I (Naoko) was a little scared by the idea of tapestry weaving but the approach Louise guided us with was so forgiving and I appreciated her ethos on mistakes - “What’s a mistake? Such a thing doesn’t exist in tapestry weaving. And I don’t unpick!” Ha! Thank you very much indeed Louise! More weaving to go! 🧶🧵🌱🦢 EcoCreative Cluster (2020-) is a project hosted by The Rockfield Centre, Oban, which focuses on natural dyes, pigments and the use of natural materials in art and craft. Grounded in the creation and ongoing cultivation of a community dye garden, it provides workshops and learning opportunities for the local community, led by textile artist Deborah Gray and invited specialist tutors. The project also has an international network weaving dimension led by curator Naoko Mabon, which includes a series of recorded on-line conversations and collaborations with international artists who use natural dyes in their practice.

A great start on #ecocreativecluster ‘Nettle Circle - The Wild Swans’ woven tapestry series. Today we had a fantastic workshop with @louiseoppenheimer . Woven using #shetlandwool yarn we #naturallydyed during our research project last year. Soon we will be incorporating #nettlefibreyarn that we have prepared and spun over the last few weeks at @artspaceoban . Watch this space!!

EcoCreative Dye Garden in Oban has had a spring tidy up. Last year’s Woad plants which gave us blue are shooting up to give us seeds for next year, weld plants gathering themselves to produce historic yellow dye when they flower in summer. Tansy too for more yellows which make a lovely sea green over woad. madder is starting to peep through (didn’t photograph that) and we will harvest roots soon for red. The Dyers’ Chamomile had its spring haircut. We are clearing two beds for flax so some irises have gone to live with Sheila along with self-seeded foxgloves and bluebells. We have a bed of established Goldenrod plants that are surplus to requirements so if you are near enough and would like one/some, drop me a line. We finished our afternoon by sowing seeds of madder, dyers’ chamomile, coreopsis, Hopi sunflower, black scabious and black hollyhocks. All now in the cold frame. Still to sow woad seeds - we have plenty but I forgot to take them!! Thanks to @sheilatheshaper and @naokomabon for your work and company. EcoCreative Cluster is a project connecting practitioners and practices using natural materials , natural dyes and pigments. Based in Oban and led by textile artist @deborah.gray7 and curator @naokomabon . Centred around development of a #dyegarden at The Rockfield Centre and associated workshops and a series of on-line artist conversations with international practitioners (recordings available on The Rockfield Centre’s YouTube channel). Initiated in 2021 supported by CHArts Argyll and the Islands, @creativescots and latterly by National Lottery Community funding.