The dye garden now has a sustainable supply of rain water via this water butt on the Waste House. Thank you to the person who donated this to the garden project. It will be much appreciated both by the plants and the gardeners.
water butt
Author Archives: Helen Bookbinder
Safflower harvest
Safflower looks like a yellow thistle and it is the tufty bits at the end of the “flower” that are harvested for colour. The dye process is complex but can yield bright pinks through to buttery yellows.
The Garden in 2019
It is early July and the the sun has brought out an abundance of flower in the garden: yarrow, weld, hollyhocks, chamomile…and a huge pile of woad seed has been saved for next year.
Woad Dyeing
The woad leaves are torn up and boiling water is poured over them. This stew is left for an hour to get the colour out of the leaves.
The sherry colour liquid is processed by first adding some washing soda to make it ph9-10 and then oxygen is both added and removed.
Silk and wool fibres tend to take up more colour than cotton and linen.
