The sentence of death for weld

These fabulous-well to a natural dyer they are fabulous- lovely weld plants are under sentence of death- the reason?  They are growing in Enys's green house.  She tells me she tried to germinate some weld seed a couple of years ago, they failed, she cast them on the greenhouse floor and her DH dug the ground for his tomatoes and .....Weld! Enys says she will try and transplant them but they have very very very long roots.

For some time now she has been nurturing madder in pots.  Amazing to think  these rather uninspiring looking  plants can produce of the greatest of dyes.  These plants are two years old and so only really need another year or possibly two. before they can be used .    Enys is going to give them a haircut this is,  she tells me,  to encourage growth. 
The other plant is Coreopsis sp one of my favourites as it makes  a lovely vibrant orange with ammonia.  
If you have clicked on the links to see the colour you can get  get from these you can see why I am really keen on them all.  I hope the weld plants survive being transplanted  I had very little weld last year and I really missed it. 

 

Oh! and Happy New year to all my readers  followers and friends .

May you be fulfilled 

and happy

Spring in the Dye Garden Frog spawn

The frog spawn is developing fast. Now you can see heads and tails.
Enys and I pottered around the dye garden looking to see what is coming up, what needs to be done and what I want. Basically loads of blue, so woad (I.Tinctoria), chinese woad (I. I ndigotica) and Persicaria Tinctoria. Then I want lots of Dyers Chamomile ( Anthemis Tinctoria) and Coreopis Tinctoria as these go into my dye kits and the latter also makes my orange ink. Genista Tinctoria only seems to last two or three years, so this year we will have to plant some more. This year I only have one self seeded weld so I hope I find lots of wild weld! DG is going to dig over a weedy spot today so may I will sprinkle weld seeds there in the hope I will get plenty next year. I love cosmos too and holly hocks even though I rarely use then for dyeing-too pretty! This drives Enys mad as she would like to see me doing more experimental dyeing-so would I but production dyeing for the workshops and craft fairs (and for my pictures) has to come first. We will plant the black violas in the pots too so pretty even if the colour is fugitive. All the other plants seem to be doing quite well although with having had so cold winter and spring they are slow.No sign of golden rod yet, the iris pseudocorus is just beginning to sprout, buds are swelling on the rhus typhinus and a few madder spouts in one or two places. Lythrum salicaria looks totally dormant at the moment but indestructible yarrow is looking healthy. No sign of ladies bedstraw ( galium varum) however dyers chamomile and dyers coreopsis are both starting to sprout form the base. Goodee!

Sod's Law: getting red without knowing how or the lament of the toss it in and see what happens dyer

I am always on the hunt for reds. Madder red is often elusive as I have very soft water, brazilwood goes a not very nice purple when felted and is not very light fast so that leaves cochineal.
Last week sometime I decided to do some cochineal dyeing. I tossed in some ground cochineal-how much? I can't remember-I think 50 g but I am not sure. I added some cream of tartar. How much? Possibly a tablespoon and then soaked the cochineal for how long? Possibly two days which was then heated in the electric casserole till it simmered (I think). When it cooled I tossed in 100g of merino mordanted with 12% alum 5% cream of tartar and left it -for how long?I don't know. I heated (I think till it simmered) but for how long I don't know. :(
Here is the result.
Yummy yummy crimson (it does not come out so well on the screen -another sod's law.
I will never be able to get this again. :(
Sold it all yesterday :( and :)
The exhausts are very pretty too

Welcome to all the new followers -nice to have you

I meant to write this blog yesterday, but there was a lot happening , and on top of it my dh went down with the mother of all man colds and leaving me with reproachful dogs.

I have spent about six years trying all sorts of different ways to get a good red with madder. as i could not get anyhting but a reddish orange. I assumed the problem was that I have very soft wate. So I added chalk, lime water, washing soda, altered temperatures, pH, talked to people , listened to loads of advice such as grinding the roots , fermenting madder for 8 days and got beautiful colours terracottas, rusts, deep orangy reds and after leaving a bath on high overnight instead of switching it off, wonderful coppery reds with brown tones BUT NO RED!

DH and I and dogs went off for a weeks holiday in September. Just before I went I noticed a bowl of soaking madder chips I had forgotten about. I put them into a bin with a lid. When I returned I covered with water, added some mordanted wool, put the heat on very low and forgot about it. About four hours later I checked the bath and found the wool was a deep red.

I thought that it was probably the very long soak had bought out the red in the madder chips as the red dye has a lowere solubility than th eother colours , but now I wonder also whether fermentation did not have a role to play. Especially as the bath Iused yesterday was fermenting. Anyway on the 14th October I put 300g of madder chips into soak. Yesterday I put the bath onto heat and about four hours later this yarn appeared! It is good to know I can replicate the results.

yeay! One triumphant dyer!