garden dye plants – Page 4

Ecoprints and Natural Dyes, garden dye plants, indigo, madder, woad

“dyeing when hell freezes over”

Posted on March 1, 2017 by arlee

I ordered madder seeds from Salt Spring Island (BC), and casting around, found little info on growing in a colder clime. Fortunately, the natural dye group on FB has some experienced growers, and some of those are in zones similar to mine–or tougher!

I suppose buying these seeds and hoping that in three years i can harvest my own reds might be a bit delusional. Calgary has a shorter growing season, colder nights (even in the summer) and hard winters, but for the price of 6.00 (including shipping), what the hell. Never know until you try. The first step will be to germinate in the Dye Dungeon, under lights, and in sand. Hoofies crossed that the seeds are viable! Though i have yet to get a true red from any commercial madder i’ve used, i keep trying!)

I also have to find my woad seeds–i did grow some the year before the flood, but alas, after the move to the shithole, the pot froze under a roof run off and the poor things didn’t survive. Specifically grown for cold zones by Sarah of Joybilee Farms in BC, i put the darn remaining seeds somewhere “safe” and haven’t found them yet. (I don’t think she sells them anymore either…)

The old indigo pot remains downstairs in the Dye Dungeon also—haven’t used it in a year, but i’m not only hoping to revive it, but to start a more “organic” vat as well. And ordering seeds for these as well…) Picking up a load of calx, henna and other assorted dye goodies tomorrow, including some proper mordants in the form of gallnut and soy!

Hope springs eternal this first day of March!

"OPINIONATION", Dyeing, Ecoprints and Natural Dyes, garden dye plants, in progress, Residency 2016, Residency 2016

place your hexes

Posted on August 12, 2016August 12, 2016 by arlee

Subject to change without notification, but i am betting this will be the most likely configuration.

And i’m having a terrible time photographing things this last week–the weather has been strange with dark moody skies and then a burst of blinding sun, and then thundercracks and lightening!

Doing some natural dye experimenting as well. I gathered dock (Rumex) seed stalks, after seeing the results someone else did in a REPUTABLE, SCIENTIFIC, FACT BASED FB group. Currently these are in various vessels with different modifiers and mordants.

Fresh above, dried and drying below.

Though someone else with 40 years of natural dye experience got a range of colours from yellow green and brown to red and orange, i’m getting some glorious shades of ————————— ——————— yellow again………..but i like yellow now, and the more threads i have in the arsenal, and to over dye, the better my thread stash looks. Could be the season, could be the weather, could be the soil, could be the stage of growth, everyone gets different results with some things. My rhubarb root dye pot gave me the most luminescent glowing gold threads that i had to try these, and there were good results from burdock as well, but i can find no roots due to recent “herbicide” spraydowns. The bastards.

And why am i harping on PROVEN DYE methods again???? Because this kind of crap is still around:

There’s a whole chunk of “dyes” listed for various colours (some are REALLY dumb…), but ANY site that immediately tells me i can use SALT and VINEGAR as a MORDANT or “fixative”, is IMMEDIATELY scoffed at by true natural dyers. Do a little research. (For one thing, vinegar is a MODIFIER, (and a Ph adjuster)not a mordant. Go look up the definition of mordant, you idiots.) Just because this is “Pioneer Thinking” doesn’t mean it’s true. “Pioneer thinking” also includes a hell of a lot of old wives’ tales. There are SO many good books, fantastic teachers and methodology sites, there’s no excuse for this ignorance. Stop perpetuating it, UNexperts……………

Back to regularly scheduled stitching again while things stew and rest.

Dyeing, Ecoprints and Natural Dyes, garden dye plants

hope Springs for the dye garden

Posted on April 13, 2016April 13, 2016 by arlee

I haven’t given up on that, in fact have been keeping a close eye on what’s up already. The Gallium boreale planted last year in those damn cheap Chinese peat pots grew all of 2″ total last summer. I’m guessing the stoopid pots have finally broken down and this year already, those dinky little babies are 6″ tall. They’re being contained in one pot because they spread like crazy, but finding the roots is near impossible, due to the hairlike consistency of them., so maybe corralling the wild beasts will help! I plan on using these for ecoprinting, rather than as a dyestuff–pretty sure i’d have to harvest ACRES to extract enough dye. I have seen some marvellous bundling results with madder root, so it’s worth a shot with these as well.

For the record, the photo above is work by Michela Pasini, and the link to her blog is highlighted in the paragraph above. I can HOPE to get results, probably paled in comparison, but you never know until you try. And obviously, it’s not going to be until the end of the summer, so that i have enough.