![](https://berntextileart.files.wordpress.com/2020/03/15b50-bernardinehineplumbagoblue.jpg)
Recently I was picking basil from the garden to pop into the evening’s dinner, and there upon the basil bush was a beautiful delicate and small butterfly. I raced inside, grabbed the c
amera and started snapping madly. afterward, I poured over “The Complete Field Guide to Butterflies of Australia” and eventually identified it as a Plumbago Blue. That was the first time I got to identify anything from my lovely new book, and took a good hour of studying all the images to get it right! It has lovely blue wings on top, but patterened brown and white underneath. I just had to have a go of doing this in fabric, and here it is. The wings and body are a synthetic fabric which I used Polysol dyes to colour, both transfer printing and direct painting. I also used artist’s inks in the background and hand dyed fabrics too.
![](https://berntextileart.files.wordpress.com/2020/03/c2d02-p1030010.jpg)