Let me introduce myself. My name is India Flint. I am the originator of the eucalyptus ecoprint, author of ‘Eco Colour’ and ‘Second Skin’ and the reason that tatakizome is now also referred to as hapazome (any academic referring to “the ancient art of hapazome” has clearly not done their research properly).
In 2018 I launched my first online course (a somewhat bumbling but well-intentioned “free-to-accompany-a-book” series of tutorials on Farcebook) which led to my establishing the School of Nomad Arts in 2019. Thank goodness I did…it absolutely saved my life when the Plague struck, not merely by keeping me solvent but more importantly enabling me to maintain and nourish connections with students I had come to know over more than a decade of international teaching. We have grown into a community of working travellers, sailing our armchairs around a virtual village well as we stitch and dye and draw and write our way through life.
I’d be lost without them.
turning over a new leaf
For twelve years from 2008 to 2020 I wrote out my thoughts at prophet of bloom on Blogger, but for the last two of those years it became increasingly difficult to respond to comments (Blogger simply refused to let me publish my responses) and so I eventually gave up, increasingly seduced by the immediacy of Instagram…and while that is still a lovely means of connecting with community, it is now ruled by an algorithm that prefers zippy videos (preferably about babies and cats) to stills and doesn't encourage wordy rambling and blethering, so I have been searching for another home. I dabbled in Wordpress for a while, as a means of gathering together my poetry, but it still wasn’t quite what I was looking for.
Substack feels like it could be a good place to be, so here I am, putting a cautious toe into the water and preparing to wade out into the tide.
I am hoping this will be another kind of village well, a gathering place where we can share stories of sustainable making, mending, and dyeing
I will also be talking about my garden, about taking walks like a three-year-old and about my fascination with life’s small and simple beauties.
Like Henri Matisse, I subscribe to the view that “there will always be flowers for those who choose to see them”.
I’ll be sharing the books that are engaging me as well as stories about the places I am fortunate to travel to. I’m not sure yet how often I shall be posting and it may take a few months to settle into a regular pattern but I promise not to bombard you with random twitter-like thoughts. These are early days so at present I’m just raking the earth, pulling a few weeds, building up the compost heap, planting a few seeds and arranging fallen leaves into simple patterns.
Lovely to find your ramblings again India. I'll follow your paths here between flowers and compost heaps with pleasure and anticipation!
I have missed the intimacy and exchange of ideas possible in the blog format. IG is wonderful for eye candy and visual inspiration, but the food for thought and deeper dives that comes from conversation is so nourishing. Thanks for dipping your toes into these waters. Soon we will be waist-deep!