Zoë Burt is an artist, designer, educator, award winning artist and author. Current themes explore the connection between ecology, botanical colour, activism and sustainability. She has two daughters and lives in South London.
From a young age Zoë has been a botanical explorer with a love for art, textiles and fashion. After studying textiles at Central St Martins, she worked in the fashion industry.
Lightbodies was awarded funding by Heritage Lottery and fusion to document summer at Brockwell Park London lido, a collabrative portrait project using light and water.
After 15 years in the fashion industry , Zoë asked the question ‘is it possible to grow a garment from seed in an urban environment? The Seeds of Fashion project was awarded a Timberland Earthkeeper grant and involved community gardens, parks, allotments, schools, developing to collaborate with Cordwainers Grow, and The London College of Fashion to grow London linen and make a piece designed by students and knitted up by technicians at LCF.
Her fascination with plant dyes grew from this project, leading her study Slow Textiles and how to ‘Grow Your Own Colour’, a year long course in growing and working with natural dyes. Zoë tutors the Seasonal Natural Dyeing and Sustainable Textiles course over 4 terms and the Textiles Advanced workshop at Morley College, London. She also offers other creative workshops at ”design meets horticulture” venues including The South London Botanical Institute, Kew, Chelsea Physic Garden, Daylesfrod Organic Farm, The Royal Horticultural Society, Bergen Arboretum, Norway and Nisyros, Greece.
Her book Nature Journal in collaboration with Marianne Wie sold at V&A as part of the Fashioned from Nature exhibition.
Zoë loves sharing her skills and continuing to learn about the depth of colour, history and potential in connecting with nature, textiles and people.
