Tuesday 9 November 2010

The last Dyes of the season

I have just been harvesting the last of the dye plants from the garden.
Persicaria Tinctoria which had been slightly hit by the recent frost had a lot of dark blue leaves . I harvested these and put them into a kilner jar and into a hot bath where it was heated for about 24 hours . The water in the jar is a deep sherry colour and I will hopefully dye with the result today.


Dyers chamomile and Coreopis tinctoria gave double handfuls which went into little pots ready for a spot of rust dyeing on silk.  Frost had killed the marigolds. Much to my surprise my Genisita tinctoria was in flower so I cut those and put them into a convenient tub that had been collecting rainwater for me. Enys ( pictured above)  dug up the vipers bugloss -Echium vulgare.  Reports form the Natural Dye Online  said that you could get blue from the roots- so at last I  get to try it.  I normally extract the blue from alkenet Alkanna tinctoria  roots with acetone so  I may have to wait a few days to get some.

4 comments:

  1. love the details, the names now mean something to me.

    I reach for your blog when I want a touchstone into normal things in life...

    huggles
    Shani

    ReplyDelete
  2. Hi Shani
    I am not sure natural dyeing is normal but it certainly grounds me! Thanks for your comment.Helen

    ReplyDelete
  3. Hapy Christmas, Helen, and thank you for such an interesting blog. I hope all is well with you and yours.

    ReplyDelete
  4. There many usefull. I wanna say that information are very interesting. Try to be gere more often

    ReplyDelete