Wherever you are in the world, when the daffodils start flowering, that is the time to sow the woad seeds for the coming years blue harvest.

It is a good idea to select a few good plants to allow to go to seed for next years sowing and to remove all the other woad plants before the seeds engulf your neighbourhood and beyond. Woad is classified as an invasive plant in some areas. Leave the culled plants to dry a little before adding them to your compost heap.

This is one of the three sturdiest plants I selected to grow ...

Renaissance Dyeing. Teintures végétales.

Teinturière & Tricoteuse: Catherine MOREL

Tou'dou Birgit Deppe Vêtements, accessoires feutre nuno

Heloise Vallet - Bijoux Contemporains

Longo Mai de Saint-Chaffrey (Hautes-Alpes) which processes 12 to 15 tons of wool a year

L'Herbier à Couleur Magali Bontoux

Artisan feutrière

Nous allons à la fête de la laine à Crest CETTE WEEK-END 11-12 février. L'Association Toisons d'Art, dont nous sommes membres depuis 4 ans, nous a offert un stand qui est devenu libre au dernier moment.

Donc, nous avons décidé hier soir d'aller et maintenant il ya une tempête d'activité chez nous. Un peu de bobinage supplémentaire, beaucoup d'étiquetage, l'impression des modèles français, etc. Ensuite, nous devons charger tout dans le camion et le sortir de l'autre côté au stand 29 à Crest. Où peut-être nous vous verrons aussi!

Vous pouvez télécharger le ...

This year there will be fully hands-on natural dye workshop, here at my dye house in Montbel from August 21 to 25th. This workshop will take only 6 students, so book early. .The workshops will be conducted in English but French will also be used and the handouts are in both languages.

You can download an outline of what we will be doing on the workshop here

Please use the contact page to ask any questions and register your interest.

Cette année, il y aura un atelier de teinture naturelle entièrement pratique, ici à mon atelier de teinture à Montbel ...

The finished wood layer, in total including that under the ground, the pile of mixed rotten and new wood is probably about 80cm high

Next we covered the pile with compost collected from the local recycling centre. We took time to push it down into the gaps so that the pile is as solid as possible and won't collapse too quickly. We hope.

Before putting on the next layer we watered it well as the wood needs moisture to start to ferment.

The final layers of well rotted compost to sustain the first years growth and then a 10cm ...

The Autumn was a busy time at Renaissance Dyeing both professionally and personally so no time was found to publish an Autumn Newsletter. For those who are new subscribers, normally you can expect a newsletter at least each season if not more often.

Winter Woad

So what happened in the Autumn? Well among other things

• At the busy Journées de la Laine at Felletin at the end of October we launched a few new patterns Madeline by Lili comme Tout and Fall in Creuse shawl by Hélène Marcy who came and spent the weekend with us to help launch the ...

What? Might you think does Hugelkultur have to do with natural dyeing. Plants, fermentation, chemical free, holistic to mention just a few similarities.

In our family we try to think of what someone might need for the coming year and give that as a gift for Christmas. This year I am getting a Hugelkultur bed and that should cover my gifts for the next 15 years at least!

There are many articles on the web about hugelkultur, this is only one of them. It is worth reading the discussion as well. I am just going to give you a quick ...

Felletin is a yearly gathering of wool enthusiasts in the Creuse, the heart of France. This was its 17th year and they attacked the organisation with gusto not only enlarging the exhibition space but also extending the time of the market to include Friday afternoon. The result was a friendly event where one had more time and space to look around and meet and chat to fellow woolers.

There were more natural dyers than ever this year, Vive la révolution.

Some pics:

It was lovely for us and our customers that designer Hélène Marcy came from Toulouse to help us ...

Octobre signifie Journées Nationales de la Laine à Felletin et cette année, il va être encore plus excitant avec plus d'espace: plus de 130 stands et plus de temps car il commence déjà le 28 octobre, vendredi après-midi à 14h00 Donc, deux jours et demi de laine. Nous serons là comme d'habitude et nous sommes impatients de voir nos travailleurs laineux collègues.

October means Journées Nationales de la Laine in Felletin and this year it is going to be even more exciting with more space: over 130 stands and more time as it already starts on Friday 28th ...

Quelques amis dans l'Aude, ont eu des difficultés à obtenir un peu de bleu de leurs plantes guède, donc samedi dernier je suis allé pour aider.

J'étais un peu inquiet que peut-être il était trop tard dans l'année pour que les plantes donnent leur couleur précieuse, mais les feuilles bien faible en raison de la sécheresse donnaient des signes de contenant un pigment bleu, des taches pourpres sur les pointes des feuilles.

Some friends in the next department, Aude, have been having trouble getting any blue out of their woad plants, So last Saturday I went over ...