The field of swaying, sunny yellow flowers is swarming with buzzing insects. This is how Claudy Jongstra, her interns and the farmers at Odin farm De Beersche Hoeve in Brabant encounter Yellow Chamomile when they collectively harvest this year's first pick of this biodynamically grown plant.
Studio Claudy Jongstra has worked with De Beersche Hoeve for many years; they share the same vision and communal spirit. The colour strength of the hand-harvested dye chamomile reflects the making process. ‘The attention, interpersonal contact and care for the earth, all is manifested in the colour. That's why there is such a beautiful saturated solar power in that yellow,’ Jongstra says.
The artist has been using the natural colours of dye plants for decades. Yellow chamomile has a slightly larger flower than the ‘ordinary’ True Chamomile and has yellow petals. This makes it especially suitable for distilling the yellow pigments she uses for dyeing her wool-felted artworks and for LOADS Collection for which she and her son Jesk Jongstra produce extraordinary clothing, furniture fabrics and bags made from high-quality cotton from Egyptian biodynamic cooperation SEKEM.
With the first spectacular Yellow Chamomile harvest, the studio can go ahead for now: it can be used to dye as much as 150 m2 of cotton for the textile collection and then a few hundred kilos of wool for the colourful artpieces.
The brilliant yellow with the warm glow of the sun will be immortalized in new artworks for the solo exhibition at gallery Fontana (7- September-26 October) and for the new LOADS Collection at LOADS in Friesland on 2 and 3 November. Register for the preview: info@loadscollection.com
Photos: Maria Letizia Vozza
