Natural dyes

I have spent much of the summer growing dye plants in tubs in front of the house. Some of them are specific dye plants such as coreopsis, dyer's chamomile, madder, lady's bedstraw and cosmos orange. These all give reliable colour and in beautiful shades. The second photo shows cosmos orange which is a beautiful plant in its own right. I have been processing this dye in a flask which is a really quick and easy way to dye small quantities. I put the fibres and threads in the flask along with the dye materials, add hot water and mordant and give a short stir. I then put the lid on the flask and leave it for one or two days. I am always amazed at how wool fibres and threads take up colour differently from silks. The results are shown in the third photo.

As well as specific dye plants I have also grown many others which give dye colours such as nasturtiums, chrysanthemums and pansies. The bees have had a wonderful summer visiting these plants and it is delightful to spend time with them all.

Later in the summer I dyed with buddleia flowers and stems. Quite a few of the flowers on the sprays were dead which gave a surprisingly strong orange colour to the dyed fibres and threads, the result can be seen in the photo where they are drying on the washing line. The addition of stems and branches to the dye pot also will help colour fastness due to the tannin content. As well as merino wool I buy many different types of fleeces from farmers in the Isle of Man where I live. At present I am using blue faced Leicester, romney and Lincoln longwool fleeces which I clean, dye, card and make into my many felted and stitched items . A large selection of these can be sen on my website patktextiles.com

Now that autumn is here I will be dyeing with tree leaves, branches, bark and cones. I will write about this in my next post.