My garden is full of colour and to capture this I usually like to make paintings of the plants and flowers. But another way to preserve the colours of summer is to use plants as dyes for wool. Here are some I have been playing with. Mostly blackberry and Oregon Grape bark.
A pot full of red zinnia petals produced a disappointing pale yellow dye but it looked pretty while I cooked it.
Oh! The beauty and creativity never stops at your place. I love every strand. Does the wool hold those colors? Funny that the red zinnias changed to yellow. Are true reds hard to come by in the plant world? I am a yarn dye ignoramus, obviously.
ReplyDeleteSo beautiful! Thanks for the inspiration!!!
ReplyDeleteHi Karen,
ReplyDelete'True' reds are hard to come by from plants in my garden or the local farmer's market. Tradionally people used insect dyes like cochaneal from the New World or Kermes from Europe. Lac, I think from Asia. Madder root is also very good. I don't think I can grow madder here...hmmm. I once started planting a dye garden. Maybe it's time to start another one.
Oops. That's spelled 'cochineal'.
ReplyDeleteAnd Hi Ben. Nice to hear from you as always.
I bet the disappointing yellow will turn out to be the one and only, just right, perfect, beautiful color for its very own project. Really.
ReplyDeleteYou probably won't find this comment, as you don't have moderation switched on. If you do, I'd be interested to learn what mordants you used.
ReplyDelete