The new story started from the seeds. Carefully collected in autumn, in different places on the island of Ischia, and scattered everywhere around the house, waiting for spring.
Which did not betray expectations, immediately giving generous blooms with an infinite variety of shades. Light, delicate corollas. A continuous, fertile source of inspiration for Bettina Buttgen, who has made them protagonists of her artistic creations on fabric, in this new season of her creative journey, guided and nourished as never before by the rhythms and harmony of Mother Nature.
«It's as if the flowers were showing me how to arrange them, right from when I cut them, and suggesting the right order to give shape to a harmony that already exists in them - explains Bettina - The flowers give me lightness, romanticism, in the observe them closely and study the possible combinations with the leaves. Even the different shapes of the leaves of the plants that I find around me are a fundamental element in the composition. I know from the outset that one can never be sure of what the imprint that the various plant elements will leave at the end of the process. And over time, everything changes, because some imprints disappear with the first wash, others fade, others remain, as if each creation ended up having its own and unpredictable life and continued to respond to the rules of nature, beyond my intervention in a continuous transformation and evolution».
It is this new dimension that conquered Bettina in her recent research on dyeing plants, leading her to paint her fabrics with flowers. A decisive turning point after reading that while artificial colors release microplastics of great impact on the environment, natural colors become earth again, a perfect example of the sustainability that has always been a priority objective in her artistic work on fabrics. «I would like to be able not to leave a mark on the environment, at least in my production», she says, revealing her deep bond with nature, towards which she combines respect with strong gratitude, «because it feeds me and speaks to me, it gives energy, in a continuous exchange for which I thank you many times during the day».
THE WOODS OF CHILDHOOD THAT ARE NO LONGER
Bettina was born in a region of Germany, North Westphalia, a large producer of coal. Her childhood memories bring her back to the beauty of the woods near her home, abruptly erased by the expansion of the coal industry. «I remember the very loud noise, continuous during the day, of the cutting of the woods to make room for the mines. Entire villages have been moved, the inhabitants have been compensated, the economy has grown, coal has brought immediate prosperity, but in place of the woods an immense hole has been created, the territory has been destroyed. I have never found my home, the places of my childhood, all my memories have been taken away. So, I no longer have roots».
He was already aware of this when he landed on Ischia for the first time. At that time Bettina was an established costume designer at a large international company that dressed great artists, jet set personalities, famous politicians. And she worked at a frenetic pace and traveled around the world: «I was on the front line, I earned well and had many professional rewards, but I only had time for work, I no longer had a life. It was like a part of me was missing, I was in crisis. So, I dropped everything. I had to start from scratch and I had left myself a year of reflection. The first trip was to Ischia, where a friend of mine was a tour guide. It was instant love. For Naples, too. I felt here a living earth, which transmitted a great energy. Then I met my husband and I stopped here».
THE NEW BEGINNING IN ISCHIA AND PAINTING ON FABRICS
Bettina restarted with courage from the skills she had built up over the years. Industrial pattern maker, seamstress and, above all, good at painting on fabrics since she was a child, «when I spent a lot of time with the wife of one of the guardians of the forest near my home. She dyed fabrics, she knew how to sew and so I learned from her. I became so passionate that I then took courses, in particular one on silk painting in France, which were very useful to me when I decided to change my whole life. In 1990 I came to live on Ischia, looking for a strong contact with nature even at a working level, which no one understood at the time».
The starting point was the painted ties displayed in a showcase of the Antiche Terme Castaldi. Experience repeated the following summer, also to learn Italian in contact with the public. And then, from 1993, the official start of the new professional activity in a showroom at the Jolly Hotel, where she presented a series of hand-painted dresses, all unique pieces completely made by her. Collaborations with some boutiques were added, and the opening of her atelier in Forio, finally «the conquest of a free space for my creativity».
ETHICAL FABRICS AND SUSTAINABLE PRODUCTIONS
That space was also an occasion for awareness. On the origin of the fabrics she used, first of all. The reading of articles concerning the mistreatment of sheep and the exploitation of workers was decisive. «I started looking for alternatives - says Bettina - So I found the silk of peace in India: the workers are protected, they live in eco-villages and the silk is obtained after the silkworms have become butterflies, all ecological. Of course, it takes more work to get the silk thread and the cost is higher, but you get an ethical fabric and for me this is fundamental. Even for the wool, I choose the one obtained with gentle shearing by workers with all rights. These are fabrics that have obtained sustainability awards in Germany, where everything is verified. On the other hand, creating with love, using materials that are the result of abuse and cruelty, is a contradiction I wanted to get out of. The origin of the materials is an added value for what I produce. My silks shine in the light of ethics».
Bettina has begun to apply the ethical approach to fabrics to colours, another distinctive element of her production. A new challenge, "so vast that my life will not be enough for me", she underlines. «Before, I watched the sunset and translated its colors onto my fabrics. Now it is nature itself that gives me the colors, that provides me with the samples, the ideas, the solutions». A demanding change of pace, which requires daily experimentation to which Bettina dedicates herself with growing passion. Helped by living in Ischia, where she discovered she had the ideal conditions at her disposal: «To prepare the fabric to receive and fix the colour, you need rock alum, which is present here on the island. And it also serves cream of tartar, which is obtained from white wine, a typical production of Ischia. It's incredible, what I need, it's all here already».
Attentive to minimizing water and energy consumption during the production process, Bettina has now focused her attention on dyeing plants and is studying their properties and yield on different types of fabric. «I'm studying the plants on the island that can offer flowers suitable for coloring fabrics and I'm testing the nuances that can be obtained. Mother nature's palette is very varied, I managed to get a gold color I've never had with chemical colors. I have many species of plants that can be used. Even roots, such as those of the madder with which eggs are colored red at Easter, have given me beautiful effects. I take advantage of the flowers of the different seasons, so my fashion collection follows the cycle of nature. And it is a continuous discovery, which is giving me great satisfaction».
Every progress, every new result is, therefore, a reason for amazement and an incentive to continue the journey with conviction. And with a neophyte's enthusiasm, although Bettina now has solid experience in all aspects of her business. The pleasure of research and innovation transpires from every word with which it is told no less than from the floral motifs, increasingly sought after, obtained precisely with flowers. Absolute protagonists also of the new collection created for the evocative showroom on the Aragonese Castle. Cut flowers from the colorful and fragrant lawn planted around her own house. A spring harmony that Bettina spreads with her art and her smile.
