The stunning Lady and the Unicorn tapestries at the Musee de Cluny in Paris were created in about 1500 using wool and natural dyes such as madder, woad and weld. They are believed to represent the five senses. Each one features a lady and her maidservant, a unicorn, a lion and numerous small birds and animals, as well as trees and plants. The background colour is red, dyed with madder, which has not noticeably faded in all the five hundred varied years since the tapestries were woven. This is a remarkable testament to the durability of natural dyes. Sections of ...

A 4 day workshop in the foothills of the Pyrenees.

En français ci-dessous.

A totally hands-on , even up to your elbows, plant dyeing workshop.

What will you be dyeing?

Mostly wool, either our French sourced Poll Dorset or the fine merino Lace-weight. But also this year a piece of antique linen for making a tote bag or cushion, French and very local of course.

With what will you dye it?

We will first be using the dye stuffs that have been tried and tested over the centuries, that is madder, weld and woad or indigo.

Then in our 'what happens ...

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 Natural Dyeing workshop to take place July 23rd- 27th, here in my humble dye-house in the Ariege.

And of course a few photos of what to expect:

Japanese Indigo in the dye garden.

Sulphur Cosmos in the solar pot.

Skimming the 'flower' from the top of the indigo vat.

Sample labelling

A peek into the solar vat after one day

Some of the final line-up

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 ...