New for 2021 is the Dyelab – a space for students to cook up a pot of plants and dye some samples of fabric or paper.

Madder tops just starting to regrow this Spring

The colour is found in the roots of the madder plants. The thicker the roots the better.

The roots are washed and chopped up then cooked to extract colour. This is a sheet of cotton rag paper which will stay in the pot for about 30 minutes.

Samples of paper dyed with the madder root. Most of these had been previously mordanted with oak gall and symplocos.