Into the Cosmos: Tataki Zome Flower Pounding

Just want to take a moment to document some of my work and process from Summer 2020. This was my first year growing a potted garden on my patio. I didn’t really have any previous experience gardening. I had grown a few indigo plants in 2019 with sprouts from Liz Spencer, the lovely Dogwood Dyer, and this really sparked it all. I challenged myself to grow more dye plants and indigo.

To be quite honest, my garden was not a great success. A lot of my marigolds rotted and died before I could really harvest any flowers. The dyer’s chamomile never produced any flowers. The purple pincushion only had a few flowers over the whole season. Really the only productive growers were the Indigo and the Sulfur Cosmos ~ thank the Garden Gods!

I was really excited to play around with the Cosmos and try some printing techniques. With the fresh flowers I used the tataki zome technique, where you pound the fresh flowers onto the cloth with a hammer. I have been trying to research the true origins of this technique to best understand the cultural significance and history. Tataki zome is a Japanese word that translates to hammer + dye. It has often been called hapa zome, but I think tataki zome is the true definition.

Below is the ~ Into the Cosmos ~ collection that I made with the tataki zome flower pounding technique. Everything is dyed with fresh avocado skins and peels or pomegranate extract, then the flowers are pounded and steamed.