As part of the Creative 50 for Manchester International Festival textile artist Natalie Linney was commissioned to collaborate with other local artists across Greater Manchester.
Natalie’s work uses eco dyeing processed to reflect her immediate environment, creating delicate and unpredictable print and pattern. For her commission Natalie collaborated with artist Cheddar Gorgeous to create a large scale silk print to be reinterpreted into costume design by Liquorice Black . The silk was dyed using rusty objects gathered from textile mills around the city that would have originally been the producers of cotton and silk. This was combined with Indian turmeric to reflect the rich history of textile trade between Manchester and Asia.
The print and colours used in the piece were used to represent Manchesters city emblem of the worker bee. The rust was cut into honeycomb patterns, creating dark brown to black prints that contrasted against the bright gold of the turmeric.
Natalie commented “Manchester today prides itself on multiculturalism and is one of the reasons I love living here. I wanted to combine the industrial heritage with the idea of immigration and diversity so looked into using spices that have been imported to create the backdrop for my rust prints.”
