Dyeing with Buddleia

More news from Val:
"Hi .... the picture shows gold dyed wool, alpaca and mohair fibres which were simmered in a slow - cooker with 15 Buddleia flower heads and no mordant for 4 hours.  A mixture of white, purple and magenta flowers were used. All have the same deep yellow center.

Alongside, the same three fibers but with copper sulphate as the mordant, double the previous amount of flower heads, also slow-cooked for 4 hours produced a medium brown on the alpaca and mohair and very dark brown on the wool.

The next experiments will be with alum, iron and also blooms that have 'gone over' (turned brown)."

Thank you very much, Val - what striking colours.

Sadly, my own Buddleia isn't producing many flowers this year so I shall have to leave them for the butterflies.  It will be interesting to see how the 'gone over' flowers perform in the dyebath (and what they'll smell like!).

AC

Calon Wlan at Hafod y Llan, Saturday July 14th.

Kate writes:

"A beautiful day for a trip to Beddgelert - sun, spinning and just me! For those of you that know me I usually have 3 children in tow. But not today, today it was just me and my wheel. Of course joined at the event by lovely and well organised Edith and lots of other keen wool enthusiasts. 

We set up our little stall and wheels in the cow shed, started spinning and waited for the crowds to find us. A steady flow of people wandered around the different stall which included some gorgeous needle felted creations, saori mor, gull skull designs and lots of fleece for sale. 

Lots of people stopped for a chat and to find out more about what we were doing. Edith sold some hand spun wool and we both enjoyed the day. 

A good opportunity for buying local fleece and sharing ideas with like minded people.

Word of mouth will help spread the word about the aims of Calon Wlan here in north wales and make it grow."

 All photographs copyright

Natural dyeing "show and tell", and a P.S.

Bryn writes:
"A brilliant display of natural dye plants, sample cards and fleece was set out by Val on Sunday. Shirley's ice dyeing samples of yarn and textile, and Edith's fleece and yarn completed this large exhibit. 

   Val took us through the choice of mordants, methods and selection of dye vessels. Solar pots of walnuts, and ideas for fomenting vegetable prunings in buckets of water were described. This was an all-inclusive talk by a very experienced Dyer.  

   Thank you Val, it was not to be missed."

Val adds:
"You might want to mention on the blog that further to our dye Show and tell, I have had great results with Buddleia flowers and will bring fibre samples to show on Monday evening. I would urge other guild members to have a go especially as no mordant is required.

Best wishes

Val "

All images copyright 2018