Do you grow your own plant material?
A question I get surprisingly often! Sometimes my answer seems to disappoint, so I thought I would expand on the topic here in the hope of clarification, and possibly inspiration. I do not have a traditional ‘dye garden’, a space dedicated to just plants that I would use in my work. Simply put, I couldn’t grow enough material for the volume one would need to produce the amount of work that I do in a year. There is also a time element to drying and processing that doesn’t often pan out. Then there is the lack of full sun on my property and my nemesis, the groundhog that lives under my shed.
That being said, I do grow and forage some material that provides me with a depth of shade that I experiment with. Over the course of the spring and summer I forage Nettles, Curly Dock, and Goldenrod. In my garden I grow, Mint, Lemon Balm, Coreopsis, Marigold, and Black Hollyhock. All of my onion skins are dried. and stored. From time to time I trial many other common plants… just for fun. Also, most of what grows around the Northeast will provide you with lovely shades of yellow…and not much else! Variety of color is not in our wheelhouse in New England.
What is important to my work is the color itself, my interest is in how the color & pattern work together and play off one another. Complex layering of colors to achieve a specific shades. Wether or not it grew in my backyard isn’t important to this end.
If you interested in dabbling in natural dyeing I encourage you to try something on the simpler side, like marigolds. Inexpensive, easy to grow in a container, they dry quickly in the sun after you deadhead them and they are a prolific bloomer. They are also a great flower for eco printing. If you are not interested in growing, give onion skins a try- they have a moderate lightfast and they smell amazing when you are dying with them.
If you are interested in trying to dye with Acorns, there is a tutorial here that you might like. Good luck!
