Archives de la catégorie Natural Dye Plants

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 ...

June lovely June, beautifies the ground and metamorphoses the dye garden from potential to actual dye palette. Here you can take a peek at some of the plants in the dye garden at the moment. These radiant woad seeds will not only give next years woad crop but also give that beautiful deep purple to wool or cloth.

I try to manage the dye garden so that it is in top condition for the natural dye workshop at the end of August, the weather makes this an interesting challenge. I am about to harvest all the Garland Chrysanthemum flowers and ...

The dye garden here in the Ariege is beginning to move, although germination and growth of new plants is slow through lack of rain and very cold snaps. These picture were taken on the 1st of May.

Autumn plantings such as Dyer's Chamomile (Anthemis tinctoria) below, and Dyer's Greenweed are off to a good start.

Dyers Greenweed (Genista tinctoria) this one has avoided the winter pruning by rabbits.

The thick rooted black Hollyhock (Alcea) is not doing so well after being moved and I will have to make sure it gets plenty of water and a good mulch ...

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 ...

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 ...