Calendula Calendar
We have facilitated various workshops on making prints using DIY photo developers using plants like calendula, cow parsley, hawthorn, willow and dandelion. Each participant’s print was intended to be their unique device to imagine/reflect upon/reframe their own relationship to time. These prints, made on photographic paper, change how they look over time, depending on their exposure to light. In the SHL garden, we discussed plants like Calendula, Dandelion, Willow, Hawthorn and Cow Parsley which have their own unique relationships to time, their medicinal properties, folklore and other fun facts. For example, calendula derives from the word ‘calen’ meaning ‘first day of the month’ as it blooms in every month of the year, and the willow tree, which grows near the water, shape shifts according to tidal bodies of water, the moon and our bodies. The above-mentioned plants contain phenols, which gives them the ability to react with photo-paper when mixed with a few other things. After choosing some plants to work with, participants made their own photo-developer and used the plants to draw and make marks to create photo prints which doubles up as a time telling/travelling/defining/defying device.
Workshops facilitated at Into The Wild - At Grow, Hackney and Conference, Sussex Uni