They were planted in my veg bed and grew into these luxurious plants.
This weekend they were picked and chopped.
And immersed in boiling water to extract the dye.
Mean while I simmered some natural fabrics and threads in a mordant solution of alum... please note... mordants are used to fix the dye.
The woad leaves were strained producing an uninspiring looking brown liquid which then had to be whisked. This made a blue froth which was quite exciting... promise of colour to come perhaps? This liquid was then sprinkled with a reducing agent to remove the oxygen (this was starting to feel a bit technical)
The fabrics and threads were immersed in the dye and carefully removed where upon their colour gradually turned blue... magic!
Everything was then washed and hung out to dry... and as they dried the coloured turned from the lovely clear blue to the following pale grey! I'm certain I must have missed a step, or introduced oxygen to the dye vat... or something similarly silly... but how disappointing after all that effort!
The velvet was marginally better.
As were the threads too... but I don't think I'll be growing woad again in the near future. More like stormy weather than summer skies! (Linda's book is very good if you fancy trying natural dyes)
Feeling bereft of colour I spent today making this little book cover which did much to cheer my spirits.
I used this super skein of silk strips which I bought from Crafty Notions a few weeks ago.
And there were enough scraps left from the book jacket to make some cards...
and a couple of brooches
That's more like it!
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