A very good friend of mine who teaches Art and Design recently went along to a natural dyemaking course. She later wanted to continue with some experiments at home so she invited me to join her. It was somewhat of a refresher for both of us as we had touched on the process a little in our course at Canberra school of Art. However she had a few new ideas for us to try.

It is a lovely process of collecting and boiling up the leaves. You never know exactly what your going to get. Results can vary due to the time of year, growing conditions and other factors. One thing I learned was I need to brush up on my tree identification so you know what is what!

The Proscess

The Results

We didn't use any modants in this round of experimenting, apart from throwing in the rusty spannner but that was quite experimental. Commonly used mordants for wool include Iron, Copper, Tin, Chrome and Alum. They can effect the colours and ensure the dye is colourfast. we will play with some of these next time, stay tuned for the results,