Growing Colour Tyfu Lliw

This is both about growing colour quite literally as plants in my garden and also about using them. I dye fibres with natural dyes and use them to "paint" with. This is how I make my landscapes , mostly of the North Wales countryside Mae Tyfu Lliw yn enw addas iawn i'r 'blog' yma. Yr wyf yn cael hwyl yn tyfu bob math o flodau i Helen i'w defnyddio. Mae hi yn creu lluniau bendigedig, mae y lliwiau yn hollol naturiol, ac felly'n gweithio'n dda iawn yn rhoi lliw credadwy o'r wlad o'm cwmpas

Sunday, 10 February 2008

Gallnut ink

I am in the process of making a gallotannic ink. On the left are 50g of gall nuts about 10 years old -at least- I have had them on my shelf for least six years and my friend Anne Campbell , who taught me to spin, gave them to me and she had had them for a while.

I rolled them up in a tea towel and bashed them with a rolling pin till they were crushed this took about a couple of minutes. ( top right)

Then I put them into soak. Jenny Dean in Wild Colours says to leave them in soak till they become soft. At first they floated on the surface, it is only now only two days later that they have begun to sink and they are still hard.The water has become a dark brown.

More later!