About Jo
Artist Jo Horswill is a nature-inspired natural dyer, printmaker and educator living in the Dandenong Ranges of Victoria, Australia.
She operates Paper Cloth Studio, a studio nestled in Sassafras, a small village on the upper ridges of the Dandenong Ranges. Her studio is surrounded by majestic forests of eucalyptus trees, a constant source of inspiration to her work.
“Looking deep into the forest ignites the creator inside me. I use elements like leaves, bark and other natural finds that I gather on my daily walks for my nature-inspired work.”
Jo’s passion and expertise lies in various techniques of printmaking. Some of these techniques include;
Botanical Contact Print, where natural colour is coaxed directly from foliage onto cloth and paper using heat, time and moisture.
Collagraph Printmaking, where textured elements are glued onto a matrix to create a printing plate. The plate is then inked and printed through an etching press.
Mono Printing, where ink is directly applied to a natural element or a plate where natural elements are then laid onto, and printed either by hand or run through an etching press.
All these printmaking techniques combined supports Jo’s nature-inspired work, in the formation of her artist books, textiles, prints and collages on paper.
Years of experience facilitating workshops for community-based organisations, guided Jo to naturally progress into wanting to run art-based workshops of her own. This led to the opening of Paper Cloth Studio in 2014 where she ran workshops in-house, for art societies and other community groups.
In 2021 Jo released a highly successful online workshop Botanical Contact Printing on Paper.
In recent years , with her love of travel, Jo has gone away to teach at artist retreats and is pursuing combining more travel and teaching in 2024.
