All Blog Posts — Natural Dyeing

In 2025 we were invited to consult with Sparsholt College on their 2026 RHS Chelsea Flower Show natural dye garden. From selecting reliable, lightfast dye plants such as madder and weld to running a natural dyeing workshop for horticultural students, this collaboration brings together sustainable horticulture and heritage textile knowledge in a meaningful way.

With the Bayeux Tapestry set to return to the UK for the first time in 900 years, this blog explores how its remarkable colours have endured for nearly a millennium. From Anglo-Saxon embroidery techniques to the natural plant dyes of madder, weld and woad, the tapestry offers a vivid insight into medieval craftsmanship, material knowledge and the lasting power of wool and natural colour.

WATERCOLOUR PAINT   FLEABANE  (Pulicaria dysenterica) Common Fleabane, a native to Europe and Asia, is in the daisy family (Asteraceae). Growing up to a meter tall it can easily be spotted in the hedgerows in late summer, between the end of July and September, where it favours damp conditions alongside ditches. Fleabane and Ragwort Its bright yellow flowering heads could be mistaken at first sight for Ragwort (Senecio jacobaea), but a closer look at both the flower and the leaves will quickly tell them apart.  These two were found growing along the same stretch of a lane near my home in...

 BACK TO NATURE  Natural Paints Workshop What a lovely way to spend a warm summer’s evening!  I was invited by Asia, of Back to Nature, to speak to a women’s group at their Vallis Veg site, situated on a hillside in gently rolling countryside, near Frome in Somerset.  As I stepped out of the car the immersive effect of the surrounding trees and grasses was immediately welcoming. I'd been asked to talk about the natural colours that can be extracted from plants and made into paints; something that I do regularly on my Elka Textiles workshops.  The group was made...

  Over the years that our natural dyeing and natural inks and paints workshops in Mere have been running, some people have come a long way to attend, so for those that want to make a weekend of it, we thought it would be good to tell you a bit about our small town, accommodation and some of the best things to see and do in the area. Mere is situated just off the A303, in the beautiful Blackmore Vale, where the borders of Wiltshire, Dorset and Somerset meet. The rich history of this Wiltshire town dates back to prehistoric...