Colours I Have Achieved and Where They Came From
I use Ingrid Sundberg's Colour Thesaurus as the naming reference for the shades I achieve. It's a very useful resource!
Wandoo Bark
A beautiful Eucalypt, I gathered the fallen bark and boiled it up in a big dye pot.
On soy-mordanted calico the bark dyed a sweet rosewood shade, but with iron badabing badadboom!!!!!
A most wonderful dove shade of grey, which I intend on recreating on a bigger scale soon.
Lichen (unidentified species)
If you recognise this lichen please let me know! There are so many and I am no botanist and the dye it produces is out of this world.
I left this lichen in a solar dye jar for about a month and a half. Each time I popped the lid, there was only the smell of fresh air! Amazing!
I only used a small bit, and dyed a bunch of material with it due to the strength of the dye and the amount of time it takes for lichens to grow. Enjoy!
York Gum Bark
A property I stayed at in the wheatbelt was peppered with York Gums planted by the owner, over 25 years ago.
While my cousins played on the trampoline, I picked a handful of the bark and made a dye bath using my regular process.
So stoked to get butterscotch shade of brown, and with iron an ashy walnut!
Puffball Mushrooms
Found these while foraging in Pingelly (thanks Cathy). Note the dog blur in these photos is Jimbo, he was a GOOD boy and helped us forage.
Using the same basic recipe for a dye bath, I made a few colours with the puffball dye and it was so so exciting! The puffball almost immediately gave me a deep dark bath.
I did a cold solar jar bath, and a hot dye bath. I soaked some pieces over night, some for only a minute! I love the range of colours this cutie mushroom delivered.
Celery
I didn't have faith this would dye green, as I've come to learn achieving greens is a painful process exclusive to the knowledge bank of masters, or the cheats (synthetics).
Mum started juicing (woohoo) so there was a mass of celery leaves left in the chicken scraps bin. I chopped them loosely to expose as much surface area as possible, and boiled the babies up.
As a soft green beige dye bath brewed up, I added fabric and let soak over the next few days. The calico didn't change much in colour so I added some iron mordant and watched a pretty greyish greenish mottled charcoal come to life.
*Note: I did this batch in my kitchen as it was just celery leaves and water. I knew for certain I wouldn't be breathing in any nasties, or trapping them inside.
