Apple Leaves

My Cox's Orange Pippin is now in full leaf, so I decided to try dyeing with the leaves, to see what colours I would obtain. Jenny Dean's 'Wild Colours' (My Bible) suggests that one can expect shades of mustard and brown, depending on the time of year when the leaves are collected.

The dye bath (steeped overnight on a very slow heat) looked rather weak, and an unpromising yellow, when I looked at a spoonful. I obtained some quite subtle shades, through. They make an interesting comparison with the stronger, though not dissimilar, shades I obtained from the apple pruning in January. The set of leaf-dyed skeins are uppermost, mordanted, (from the left) with alum, copper, alum + iron and alum + tin; the lower set are the results from pruning, mordanted (again, from the left) with alum, copper, and rather confusingly with alum + iron and then alum + tin.

Madder Still

So now I've used up all of the rest of my madder root to dye 30 toning skeins in one dye bath. My conclusion is that the method is quite tough on the wool, and also that my implements, especially my dye pan, are too small to dye large batches of wool successfully. There is insufficient room to allow the individual skeins to float freely. I'll be returning to small batch dyeing (four skeins at a time) from now on.

30 Skeins of Weld from One Dye Bath

I've spent a happy two days, dyeing skeins with Weld. Here they are, drying indoors. It is too wet to dry them in the garden.

And now they have been dried and twisted. The dabs of bright colour are the lengths of commercially-dyed wool that I use to identify each mordant and assistant, in order to keep track of the complex dyeing process.

MK 50 May Makers at Westbury Arts Centre

Imbolc and Ostara on display at Westbury Arts Centre.

Madder and Madder.

I'm still hoping for a good red, though one informant has suggested that this is really only possible with Turkish-grown Madder, which is embargoed to me because the plant source has to be locally-grown. That's life! I followed Jenny Dean's instructions carefully, pouring boiling stare on the roots and straining it off after a couple of unites (twice) to take away the orange pigment, then simmering the roots for twenty minutes and dyeing with the liquor. I've made two lovey toning groups of brighter and more muted rusty-orange, but no sight at all of red!

Artichoke Leaves

One of the artichoke plants in my garden was damaged by heavy rial, so I took the opportunity to use the damaged giant leaf for dyeing.

I obtained quite respectable shades of green when mordanted with alum and copper, alum+ tin as an assistant gave me a soft yellow, and alum assisted by iron a greenish-brown. I've been searching for a good green for some time now. Result!

Alder Buckthorn

Alder buckthorn (Frangula alnus) is a colourful tree native to England and Wales, most of Europe, northern Africa and western Asia.

It is not related to the common Alder, nor to the Buckthorn. It is similar in appearance to alder and the two trees are often found growing together. This is what I obtained from fallen twigs and bark.

Beltane

Beltane is woven, off the loom, finished, and wrapped up ready to store away until needed. It was only as I finished wrapping it up that I realised I had not photographed the finished piece. But I'm not going to unwrap it again now. I'll wait until it is exhibited at the MK 50 Roadshow at MK Museum next month. Meanwhile Imbolc and Ostara are on view at Westbury Arts Centre.

More Weld

I quite like these shades!

Birch Bark

Still on the quest for something other than yellow!

Elderberry

I was getting so fed up of dyeing yellows the other day, that I scrabbled around in my store cupboard and found some dried elderberries. Just the thing for some good strong purples, or so I thought! I applied my usual processes and came up with some rather striking greens. Form the left, mordanted with alum, with copper, with alum + tin and  alum + iron.

More rhubarb root

I've dyed with rhubarb root before, but the abundance of rhubarb on my allotment plot encouraged me to try again. Lovely, strong colours from fresh roots, and who would have thought that rhubarb would yield these results. I've put the two sets of yarn together for comparison.

Hawthorn Flowers

On Sunday afternoon I sat in the garden in the sunshine, and stripped the flowers very carefully off a branch of hawthorn, cut from our hedge. Jenny Dean advises that no leaves or twigs should fall into the dye bath, as these dull the colour so I was careful to include only the flowers, musing about which parts of the white flower would dye the wool.

By the time I had finished, the dye bath was full of flowers, which I simmered slowly and carefully for an hour.

The following day I strained off the liquor and added four skeins of wool, three of which had been prepared with alum and one with copper. The results were pleasingly strong and unusual. Form the left, mordanted with alum, copper, alum + tin and alum + iron.

The Last of the Weld Dye Bath

A couple of weeks ago, I dyed 25 skeins of wool with weld, using a method given in Jenny Dean's book 'Wild Colour'.

I decided to re-use the weld, to see if I could extract more colour. I put half back into the dye pan, steeped it, and used it straight away, with good results; some less intense, but interesting shades.

I put the rest in my slow cooker, left it on in the greenhouse, and promptly forgot about it! I rediscovered it over a week later, by which time most of the liquor had evaporated, leaving a very unpromising and smelly pan of mush. However, I dyed four skeins with the liquid that was left, and obtained some quite intense yellow shades.

From the left, un-mordanted, mordanted with alum, with copper and with alum and tin. I'll try not to do that again, but these will be added to my yellow skeins that are waiting to be over-dyed with woad.

So Much to Do, So Little Time.

Right now, with Spring in full flood, I feel like I never have enough time to do everything I need to. As those of you who look through my Blog will be aware, I've been catching up with my yellow skeins, to save for over-dyeing later in the year, before all the early yellow flowers fade and die. Once they are over, I've lost the opportunity until next year, though I dare say there will be another batch of yellow flowers along in a minute!

At the same time, I need to be out picking the fresh Spring greens, whilst the leaves are brand new. I almost missed the Blackthorn flowers, and now I shall have to hurry up to pick the Hawthorn flowers before they drop.

But to do all this dyeing, I need to make more mordants. And strictly speaking, I should be weaving my Beltane hanging, as May 1st, the Beltane Festival, has just passed. Beltane honours life, celebrates the peak of Spring and marks the beginning of Summer. It is a Celtic Fire Festival. The roots of the name 'Beltane' can be found in the Celtic word for their god Bel (the bright one) and in the Gaelic word for fire (teine). Traditionally Beltane coincides with the blossoming of the Hawthorn, or May tree, which represents fertility.

I've warped my loom, and the warp is ready to weave, but first I have to turn my 26 weft skeins into balls and then into bobbins, before I begin. Though the colours are all authentic Spring pickings, but I worry that they look a little boring, especially compared with the basket of yellow skeins. I guess this bolt of cloth will say 'subtle'.

Dandelions

Like the gorse and the daffodils, the dandelions have passed their first flush and made dandelion clocks. Daisies and buttercups are all the rage now! How quickly the seasons advance. It is so noticeable when you are on the lookout for plants to dye with.

Fortunately, I found some dandelions that were a little behind the game, and that had not been mown by the Parks Trust. The colours from these are bot as strong as those I dyed earlier, but still quite acceptable.

More Gorse. Still in search of yellow.

I'm trying to capture all the early Spring yellows again, before they fade and die back. Most of the gorse on the side of our local lake has gone over, but some late yellow blossoms are still attracting the bees and this amateur dyer. Last time my colours looked like this, from the left, mordanted with alum, copper, alum+tin and alum+iron (my gladden and sadden method). The tin really popped!

This time, they look like this. From the left, un-mordanted, then mordanted with alum, copper and alum + tin. I've been leaving out the iron in my search for good yellow shades, because iron dulls yellow to brown. I'm almost regretting my intention to over-dye these skeins.

Safflower Again

Back in January, I dyed four skeins with dried Safflowers to obtain some very bright yellows. From the left, mordanted with alum, copper, alum + tin and alum + iron. My seedlings are growing well, so I am using the 'house rule' that if I can grow it in my garden or allotment (or pick it locally) I can dye with it!

I had another shot at dyeing a batch of Safflowers the other day, this time to produce one skein (from the left) without mordant, one with alum, one with copper and one with alum and tin. These yellows will be added to my stash of yellow skeins ready for over-dyeing with woad. They are not so bright as my first attempt, but still quite luscious.

Dyer's Greenweed

I love the old name for this plant, Woadwaxen. It used to be used to make green in conjunction with Woad.

My plant is growing strongly, but it is not in flower yet, so I applied my 'house rule' that if I grow it, I can dye with it, and so I used some dried Dyer's Greenweed I bought at Wonderwool Wales to dye four skeins using my patent four skein method.  I'll harvest from my own plant later in the summer.

The sharp eyed among you may have spotted that I also have a Golden Hop. I'm going to try dyeing with that soon.

Chamomile Floweres

I've set myself a 'house rule' that if I'm growing it, I can dye with it, but that I don't need to gather everything from my own garden. That makes sense with plants like madder that take years to mature, or like weld where one needs a great deal of dyestuff to make up a batch ready for over-dyeing with woad. I have several dyer's chamomile plants in my garden, but they are newly-planted and obviously not in flower yet, so I used dried flowers bought from Fiery Felts at Wonderwool Wales for my latest dye bath. I dyed some chamomile earlier in the year and the results were disappointingly drab apart from the skein dyed with alum+tin.

This time, the results were far better. As this set will be over-dyed later (if I can resist using them as they are) the skein on the left is un-mordanted, and the rest have been mordanted with alum, copper and alum + tin. This experiment just goes to show what a difference the raw materials make to the end result, as everything else about the process was standard.

Faded daffoldils

Last time I dyed with daffodil flowers, way back in February, I obtained some lovely, bright shades of yellow.

 Now that I'm beginning to collect yellow skeins to over-dye with woad, in an attempt to produce a palette of greens, I am revisiting the flowers that have already yielded strong yellow shades. But how the season has moved on whilst I've attended to other things! The daffolils are just about over for the year. What to do?

I picked a few heads and soaked them for an hour or so, and noted that the flowers revived and gave me some yellow stain. So I picked a basketful of heads, and simmered then for an hour, then left them to steep overnight.

The results from the dye bath were not so bright as for my first batch. Most tended rather more to beige than to yellow! I did not include a iron assisted skein in my set of four, but substituted an un-mordanted one instead, on the far left, as my first batch of daffodil-dyed skeins had already shown me that iron saddens yellow to a brownish shade. However, the skein that I assisted with tin, on the far right, gave be a brilliant yellow that really popped. Fascinating!