Deadnettle Dye Pot

April 3, 2014 | JP Dawes Artist

Do you have this weed in your yard or in a field near you? It is Deadnettle, Lamium Purpureum for the purists, and winter weed for the layman. It is a member of the mint family.

Using Sasha Duerr’s book “The Handbook of Natural Plant Dyes” I sort of followed the directions for dyeing with mint. I say sort of because Ron and I used a bundling technique as an experiment rather than just making a dye pot. We put the bundles into a stainless steel pot and simmered for 40 minutes with washing soda and alum in the water. Tomorrow we will see what it looks like after the water cools. We are hoping for a medium mint green color. If they are, some of the pieces will then be put with an iron mordant to see if we get a deeper green. By the way, this is cotton fabric that was scoured and then wetted before bundling. We used a 1/1 concentration of plant to WOF [weight of fabric].

My Partner in Crime is Dyeing

March 19, 2014March 19, 2014 | JP Dawes Artist

Ron expressed an interest in learning some bundling and dyeing techniques. I’m a novice and everything is experimenting so I have no objection to him coming along for the ride. I asked this morning what he was going to do with the fabric he dyes and he said he didn’t know what I was going to do with it, he is just going to dye it!

I thought you would like to see his first dyeing experiments. After he bundled some rose petals and rose leaves in silk and linen he rolled them up and tied them. The long skinny one he did when I was out of the room and he didn’t add any vegetation before he rolled it around a rusty spike. They were cooked in a vinegar and yellow onion skin bath. Some pretty good results! Oh yes, he left the bundles to sit for 3 whole days before unrolling them. The man has infinite patience that I don’t have.

Left over Dye Embroidery Thread Colors

March 17, 2014March 18, 2014 | JP Dawes Artist

Dyed threads with left over dye stored in the fridge after snow dyeing.

It resulted in interesting shades. The more pastel threads are

white mercerized cotton,which I thought would take more dye.

Wrong again…it was the thread with a sheen that took the dye and produced

the richest dark colors.

Snow dyeing Pearl Cottons

February 4, 2014 | JP Dawes Artist

Making ice cream colors from the snow.

Blueberry, Raspberry and Lime Green Sherbet

20 Yd skeins of #5 Pearl Cotton

$5 a skein

what do you think, is that price just right?

Oh NO, not again!

February 2, 2014 | JP Dawes Artist

You know that rare heavy snow storm that kept those of us in north central Arkansas holed up for days because the highway dept. couldn’t seem to get roads open? Well, it looks like we are going to get it again. The snow is coming down in sheets already. It isn’t a gently falling snow for a winter wonderland. It is coming in sideways and wet.

The prediction is for 2-4 inches accumulation but it wasn’t to start for another couple of hours. I hope the early start isn’t foreboding of more inches.

BUTTTTT…..just in case the snow builds up; yesterday and this morning I have been scouring cottons and making pearl cotton skeins for some more exciting snow dyeing. It isn’t exactly making lemonade from lemons, more like the joy of creamy vanilla ice cream from the snow. Hmmmm…I wonder what pure vanilla would do as a dye? I still have large bottles left over from Mexico…..