This is a good time of year to sort out the seed harvest and divide them into envelopes to swap or give away.
The dye garden can supply the following seeds to any staff or students who would like to grow their own colour: weld, madder, coreopsis, woad.
Over the summer, we have been collecting plant material to make into ink. The inks are easy to make – plant material is cooked and sieved and reduced and strained again until a strong colour is reached.
The coreopsis appears to have survived the recent stormy weather and is growing on strongly. It will be needed for a Dyelab workshop in July so hoping to see some flower buds soon.
Lots of weld seedlings which will need thinning out. These will provide a harvest for next year. Weld is an essential plant for the dye garden as it produces a strong yellow dye which has good list fastness properties.
June 24th is St John (Baptist) Day and coincides with the midsummer flowering of Hypericum/St John’s Wort.
A harvest of flowers from St John’s Wort for use in the next dye pot. Not sure which colour it will produce on cotton paper…..
March 2021
At last, work can restart on the dye garden after a year of absence.
Most of the plants have survived the very dry season last year. But some areas will need replanting and weeding.
A larger patch of comfrey has been planted, teasel and cornflower seed has been sprinkled so hoping for some warm weather and spring rain to see them germinate.
A peacock butterfly was spotted sunbathing near the garden
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.
In a few days we will be harvesting this woad and making a vat with it. I will post the results here next week.
We have been collecting the flower heads of four plants: coreopsis, rudbeckia, chamomile and cosmos. These have been harvested over a few weeks now and left to dry out in open paper bags. We are also starting to save seed from these plants. It will be interesting to compare the colour extracted from dried flower heads to fresh.
Mid July and the coreopsis is in full flower. Harvest the flower heads which can be dried and stored or used directly by steeping in water. We grew two varieties of coreopsis. The taller one was easier to grow and seems to yield more flower heads so we will try to save some seed for next year.
July in the dye garden and these hollyhock flowers are ready to harvest for another solar dye jar.
