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PREPARING PLANT FIBRES FOR NATURAL DYEING
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Claudia GosseINTRODUCTION The success of your natural dyeing project will depend on how well the fibres are prepared. To get rewarding and even dye results it’s necessary for fibres to be clean and free of any impurities, such as the sizings used in the manufacturing process. This cleaning is known as ‘scouring’, which sounds a little drastic but really just means washing thoroughly. NB: you can only dye 100% natural fibres with natural dyes. Synthetic and mixed fibres will not respond well to natural...
NATURAL DYEING WITH ACORNS
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Claudia GosseNATURALLY DYEING WITH DYER’S COREOPSIS (Coreopsis tinctoria)
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Claudia GosseNATURAL DYEING WITH COMFREY (Symphytum officinale)
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Claudia GosseNATURAL DYEING WITH STINGING NETTLES (Urtica dioica)
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Claudia GosseMy interest in nettles is, of course, as a dye plant and I was interested to learn that during World War II children were encouraged to collect nettles for the production of a dark green dye for camouflage material.
You can forage for nettles throughout the summer, but it’s preferable to gather them in the spring when they are still fresh and bright green. These nettles were gathered in early June when some were beginning to flower.