VALENCIA — They’re American scenes, so clothes designer and photographer Mary Kathleen Bryan of Valencia thought it only fair that they be reproduced on American fabric.

Bryan and her fledgling company, Nature HD Clothing and Accessories, produce what she calls “photocamo clothing,” including pants, skirts, tops and accessories featuring Bryan’s photographs of leaves and flowers transferred to fabric.

Bryan describes it as “not your man’s camo.”

She said her idea for the camouflage designs was born on a trail one day when she was hiking.

“I take a lot of photographs of nature. My friends said ‘You should make some camo from that.’ It grew from that organically,” said Bryan.

The original photo is printed on bolts of material after Bryan lays out the pattern.

Bryan describes the process of transferring the nature photographs onto the bolts of fabric as a “hybrid of beauty and adventure brought to life by functionality.”

Bryan said it’s been two years from the initial idea until now when she is able to produce clothing in her home-based workshop in Valencia.

Some of the delay was due to Bryan’s insistence that her nature photographs be transferred to cloth manufactured in the United States.

“I took a year to find a mill here in America. I could have gone to China,” she said.

“It’s all about the fabric,” Bryan said. “It’s a high cotton-polyester blend with a little spandex from American Mills (in South Carolina),” said Bryan. “Printing the designs on the fabric is done in California.”

This is a selling point, she said.

“It’s becoming more and more important to Americans,” she said. “Outsourcing is not as attractive anymore. The made-in-America movement is the way the industry is moving.”

Bryan is launching a clothing line without any formal training in fashion design.

“The salon industry has been my life, and I’ve been into photography since I was a kid,” she said.

She’s getting some help from Lacey Barber of Port Allegany, her co-worker at Inter-State Studios, a school photography business in Jeannette.

“I have a business background. I am a wedding photographer,” said Barber. “MK and I have been bouncing ideas back and forth. Going forward, I’m going to help with the digital aspects of the photography.”

For now, Bryan said she is focused on raising money to move her operation into bigger quarters.

“I’m concentrating on building the brand,” Bryan said.

Right now, she said the two most popular items in her line have been a skirt and a tank top.

“These are customizable products,” she said. “If you want a skirt, the skirt would be made for you. You choose the style.”

“If you want a cargo skirt, we can add pockets,” said Bryan.

“The accessories can be for anyone, but we are focused on women so that they can have an option for outdoor clothing that is feminine and functional,” Bryan said.

The tank top features fall foliage photographed in Allegheny County’s North Park, she said, while the other patterns come from photographs taken in Prince Gallitzin State Park near Windber and Forbes State Forest in Somerset County.

In the future, Bryan envisions launching a contest where people would e-mail in photos of nature from each ecosystem in the United States to be used as fabric patterns.