Towards Christmas

When I was young, many years ago now, we used to make little surprises for each other during December, secretly do another's chores, sweeties under the pillow that kind of thing. An atmosphere of thoughtfulness for others to lighten the dark approach to Christmas. Keep am eye on our blog, instagram and facebook pages to join in the December fun, give-ways, competitions, discounts and thoughtfulness. Virtual sweeties under your pillow.

Blue Jean socks

A little later than promised the colourful and cosy Blue Landgirl socks by Kate Wallace are here, perfect with your winter jeans.

Renaissance Dyeing ...

Offre d'été

L'été est définitivement arrivé et pour ceux d'entre vous qui commencent à penser à votre projet de vacances pour vous aider, nous offrons une réduction de 10% sur tout ce qui est laineux sur le site, ce qui signifie tout sauf les extraits. Le code est sunshine et l'offre se déroulera du 2 juillet au 15 juillet

Bundles de Merinos d'Arles et nouvelles couleurs

Peut-être voudrez-vous prendre l'un des nouveaux 'bundles' de Merinos d'Arles pour améliorer votre travail de couleur. Ce sont 4 nuances naturellement teintes de laine Mérinos d'Arles ...

Cet été, nous ouvrons nos portes le premier samedi après-midi de juillet, août et septembre.

Il y aura une démonstration de teinture indigo et vous pourrez poser vos questions sur la teinture naturelle.

Vous pourrez voir la teinturerie où je teins les laines et la salle d'enroulement d'Adriaan où nous aurons également notre stand de marché avec toutes nos laines et kits exposés.

Alors peut-être vous voir entre 14 et 18 heures. le 7 juillet, le 4 août ou le 1er septembre.

This summer we are opening our doors the first Saturday afternoon of July, August and September ...

Summer Offer

Summer has, I think, definitely arrived and to give a helping hand to those of you beginning to think of your holiday projects we are offering a 10% discount on anything woolly on the site, that means all but the extracts. The code is sunshine and the offer will run from July 2nd to July 15th. Happy Holidays

Merinos d'Arles Bundles and new colours

Maybe you might want to grab one of the new Merinos d'Arles Bundles to enhance your colour work. These are 4 naturally dyed shades of Merinos d'Arles fingering wool, 4 x ...

I hope it is not yet too late to wish you all a healthy, peaceful New Year, full of colour and achievement. January usually keeps me busy organising the year's natural dyeing workshops and markets where we hope to see some of you this year.

The first opportunity to meet us and see our colours, kits and touch the wool will be February 10th-11th in Crest in Drome. Here you can download the flyer and the list of exhibitors. As usual there are lots of exciting woolly experiences awaiting. See you at booth 16.

We will be just a ...

In the cold winds of January I have begun to ponder warm July days whose theme will be wool and lots of colour. Yes it is the yet to be dyed 2018 5-day Natural Dyeing workshop to take place July 23rd- 27th, here in my humble dye-house in the Ariege. Here is a link to the general information about the workshop. If you would like to come you can download the booking form here and here is the information about accommodation

And of course a few photos of what to expect:

Japanese Indigo in the dye garden.

Sulphur Cosmos in ...

Introduction to The Use of Vegetable dyes by Violetta Thurstan.

"Is this 'vegetable dyeing' that we are hearing so much about less trouble than chemical dyeing?

No it is more trouble.

Is it then quicker?

No, it takes much longer.

Is it a faster dye?

No, a really fast chemical dye cannot be surpassed by any vegetable dye.

Is it cheaper?

No, the cheap chemical dyes in packets cost only a few pence.

Why then should anyone trouble to learn how to use vegetable dyes?

Because of the beauty of its results, Those who use them claim that no chemical ...

Somewhere in one of those memory compartments that I haven't opened for decades are images of the Kalavala, meteoric iron and autumn. This is a Finnish folklore poem that contains elements of the Michael and the dragon imagery.

It joggled back up to the surface today as I am in the process of turning some brilliant summer wool dyeing in to autumn colours with the aid of iron.. not meteoric alas just plain old homemade iron acetate (a future blog post!). Though I bet meteoric iron would work better! This treatment with iron which is known as saddening has ...

Juin embellit le sol et métamorphose le jardin de colorants dans une palette de teinture. Ici, vous pouvez jeter un coup d'oeil sur certaines plantes du jardin de teintures en ce moment . Ces graines de guède radiants donneront non seulement la culture de guède prochaines années, mais aussi donner cette belle violet foncé à la laine ou de tissu.

J'essaie de gérer le jardin de colorants afin qu'il soit en excellente condition pour l'atelier de teinture à la fin du mois d'août, la météo fait un défi intéressant. Je suis sur le point de récolter ...

A quick tour of the dye-garden as it is at the moment on 5th June 2017; naming plant, uses and colours.

Judas tree pods give a lovely orange tinged eco-print and their roots if you ever dare dig them up give a red dye.

Dyers Chamomile (Anthemis tinctoria) producing a warmer yellow than weld on all fibres, good for solar dyeing and eco-printing.

Dyers Greenwood (Genista tinctoria) Good yellow dye on all fibres, handy for eco-printing

Garland Chrysanthemum (Glebionis coronaria) Yet another abundant source of yellow, gives a warm yellow to orange dye, great for solar dyeing and eco-printing

Goldenrod ...