Last week I completely forgot to tell y’all about the dyeing class I went to down at the WSU Research and Extension center in Mt. Vernon!
It was a Master Gardener-sponsored event taught by Tiny Stratton, and it was really inspiring.
Here are photos of some of the samples:
It was a short class, so there weren’t any hands-on dyeing opportunities. It was more focused on educating people on all the beautiful results you can achieve with various plant materials using only alum and cream of tartar as mordants (way low toxicity).
The samples below were all dyed with Madder.
Love the Madder.
Anyone know of a local source?
Also got lots of recommendations for further reading–
Isn’t this just beautiful?
And I came away with a plant and some seeds to start my Dye Garden-
The plant is Agrimony and the sees are for Weld
But seriously- any thoughts on where I can get a madder plant?
Or Woad?
Very cool (although some of the photos did not come through for some reason). I hate finding out about stuff after it happens though. But what a great learning experience for you!
thanks for the heads-up Donna! We did go back in after the fact and edit some of the photos, and I’m sure that’s how the links got messed up. Are they showing up now?
Yup. They look great!
Horizon Herbs (http://www.horizonherbs.com) sells a fair selection of dye seeds and plants, including woad and madder. The madder and dyer’s chamomile I got from them this spring are doing splendidly.
And if you want just the dyestuff, Dharma Trading (www.dharmatrading.com) or Maiwa (http://maiwa.com) are both great sources.
That’s great. Thanks so much for the info!
No problem! Natural dyes are awesome, I love to spread the word 🙂