All Blog Posts — Natural Dyeing

My interest in nettles is, of course, as a dye plant and I was interested to learn that during World War II children were encouraged to collect nettles for the production of a dark green dye for camouflage material. 

You can forage for nettles throughout the summer, but it’s preferable to gather them in the spring when they are still fresh and bright green.  These nettles were gathered in early June when some were beginning to flower.

It would be hard not to notice that the dandelion season is here!  Although they flower throughout the summer, spring is when they burst forth in profusion.  The dandelion  (Taraxacum officinale) is a perennial plant that grows widely across temperate zones.  As anyone trying to keep them out of their garden will know, they are hard to thwart, each of their fluffy white ‘dandelion clock’ heads containing over a hundred seeds that drift away on a breeze.  The name ‘dandelion’ comes from the French ‘dent de lion’, lion’s teeth, and the plant has a fossil record going back to the...

Learn how to naturally dye beautiful easter eggs using common kitchen staples. Use beetroot, turmeric, coffee, onion skins and cabbage to create natural easter decorations. 

A lovely project to try with children, combining a walk to gather leaves and flowers for resist dyeing with some creativity.

Please always forage responsibly taking only what you need, leaving the rest be.

Yesterday I held my first natural dyeing workshop in its new home -mine! After several years of packing up the back of the car with all the boxes required to get the equipment to every new workshop venue – that’s pots and pans, sieves and tongs, yarns and fabrics, dyes and mordants, buckets and cloths, hobs and handouts and a lot else besides – I wondered if perhaps it would be better to set up a workshop space at home. Running natural dyeing workshops at Elka Textiles’ studio, just outside Winchester, was a joy; light and airy, plenty of space,...