This past week, I took a drive from Roanoke to Meadows of Dan on the Blue Ridge Parkway. The wildflowers were gorgeous and I could not resist taking some photos. Not only did I want to share these photos with you, but I also wanted to show you what beautiful natural dyes could be made from these plants. I began using natural dyes about 22 years ago.
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| Coreopsis--one of my favorite dyeplants..... |
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...and you can see why! From the beautiful old gold color
on the left to the rusty orange on the right. |
Sometimes, dye plant experiments produce less than wonderful results......
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| See the pale, cream-colored sample in the middle? |
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That was the dye produced by this gorgeous Wild Indigo Plant.
A pretty plant to look at, but a horrible dye! |
...but for every failure, there are many more successes!
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| Mullein Plant |
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Everything from the cream color on the left to the dark green
color on the right were all produced from mullein. |
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| The pretty olive green in this piece was dyed with mullein |
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| Daisy Fleabane (another favorite!) |
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| The brilliant yellow in this shawl was dyed with daisy fleabane |
Here is a sneak peek from the next post about natural dyes!
I LOVE dyeing with natural dyes...though the colors aren't brilliant...they are SO beautiful!
ReplyDeleteNatural dye colors all blend together so nicely. I do believe that it would be impossible to put two naturally dyed colors together that DO clash!
ReplyDeleteI don't know anything about dyes-so I am shocked that you can get those vibrant colors from natural fauna! Just wow : )
ReplyDeleteI loved the post below about your Dad-and going back to childhood places and memories too.
tipper