A little end of year note
‘Tis the season for roundups and look backs, so here I am. I’ve personally had an excellent year in SCA terms in 2023 and I think it’s safe to say that this little dyeing community is a great part of that. It is a wonderful thing to run a workshop and have people enthusiastically participate, and to…
Dyeing with Purple Gromwell
Purple gromwell (aka red stoneroot and red gromwell) is related to Borage and forget-me-not and has been used both medicinally and for dyeing for literally thousands of years, especially if you consult East Asian texts. In different cultural traditions, it was variously believed to have, when ingested, properties ranging from anti-viral to contraceptive properties to…
Elizabethan Colour charts
Having mentioned elizabethancostume.net earlier I was idly poking around it on my lunchbreak got absolutely sidetracked by some of the names of the colours documented on the site, not least some lists compiled by Penny Ladnier which are absolutely awesome. I love me a good quirky name, (ask me how I got interested in mushrooms)…
The Whole Art of Dying in two parts – A first impression
The use of dying not dyeing is not mine, just to be clear! I’ve very recently discovered this book and am currently completely fascinated by it, even though it was printed out of my period of interest, in 1705 in London. The full title text includes:”The whole art of dying : in two parts, the…
My first experiments in natural dyeing
I have some experience with dyeing clothing from when I worked in a theatrical costume shop for a few years. These costumes were dyed in an old washing machine drum that we used exclusively for fabric dyeing, and the dyes we used were packaged Rit, Dylon, or other purchased powders and liquids in bright vibrant,…
How To: gather basic dyeing equipment
Going to be honest with you, this is just a list of things I’ve found useful and is in no way complete. I’ve been doing this for a little while now and a lot of the stuff I’ve picked up as donations or second hand. I got very lucky and picked up chemistry flasks in…
How To: Scour Animal/protein fibres.
Scouring is the term used in the dyeing world for cleaning – but not in the standard ‘bung it in the washing machine’ type of cleaning. When you consider how pernickity natural and historic dyes can be it makes sense that you want to remove as many reasons for your dyeing to go wrong as…
Marigold – a colour that lives up to it’s name.
At a lovely August weekend in Clara, Orlaith managed to demystify natural dyeing for me to a large extent. I got really excited! This was something new that I hadn’t tried yet, and the thought of dyeing my own yarn and then making it into something I can use, or can gift to someone, has…
Tannins as a mordant
Tannins have been used for centuries both colour and help fix other colurs to fabric and yarn. By themselves they colour these anything from a light beige to brown. They are found naturally occurring in various plant tissues, such as barks, leaves, and fruits, especially woody cones. They are particularly good as a mordant for…
The Great Madder Experiment
As part of an event I ran called Féile na nÚll this year there was a workshop, a great madder experiment if you will, where people who wanted to participate brought tap water from different areas. We messed about a bit with the PH of an additional sample of tap water and threw in a…
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