Amy Hemphill Dove’s materials and subject matter are pure nature. She roams landscapes collecting everything that catches her attention and explores potentials in her studio. Amy exclaims “I love this process! The botanicals release remarkable secrets from local plants that we see every day and often take for granted. Botanical dyeing and printing allow me to look beyond the usual green of leaves and to really see the shapes, structure, and chemistry in nature.”

And Amy sure knows her chemistry, earning a Bachelor of Science in Textile Design from Philadelphia College of Textiles and Science. After college, Amy also worked as a Jacquard fabric designer for a major eastern mill, creating many contemporary, abstract, floral, and traditionally patterned interior fabrics for select furniture manufacturers.

A consummate experimenter, Amy combines techniques and materials freely. She dyes, felts, prints, and stitches onto a range of natural textiles to surprising results. Using diverse techniques of Shibori (the Japanese art of resist dyeing and texturing), folding, pleating, binding, and printing she creates a unique beauty and diversity in her pieces. There are so many variables at work in this kind of alchemy, including soil, climate, water, PH, type, and weave of the fibers and fabrics.

Her drive to explore new directions generates incredible variety in her pieces. Each is a one-of-a-kind creation. The broad range of fibers and techniques she uses become scarves, tapestries, shawls, and more, all with an organic beauty that take your breath away. On display this month are hand-dyed, botanical printed silk scarves, shawls, wraps, and felted wall-hangings.

Butterfield Gallery has free parking in the back.