My journey into the world of natural dyes has been an important bridge between my life as a flower farmer (in summer) and my life as a quilter (in winter). Growing a selection of my own dye plants has allowed me to preserve a part of the season that is typically quite ephemeral and explore colour in a new way.
Most of my dye plants are started from seed each spring and harvested throughout the summer. I dry most of this material for use over the winter. As I work with each dyestuff I also experiment with a variety of modifiers, such as iron, citric acid or washing soda, to achieve a spectrum of shades from a single plant.
I grow a number of different dye plants including madder, weld, Japanese indigo, coreopsis, marigold, sulphur cosmos and dyer’s chamomile.
