Pure Tinctoria

New Niddy Noddy!

2011-11-03T03:04:00.000-07:00

We've got a few new niddy noddy's for sale on our online shop
They are the most beautifully hand made niddy noddy's we've come across and are the creation of Nick Gant in Devon.

The Dam, which takes 1 metre per turn, is priced at £20 and the Lamb, a sample niddy noddy, is £15. They will both be available from 14 November, so put the date in your diary, ready to order!

Left: The Dam in use.

Left: The Dam, in "flat pack" mode!

Colour Palette of the Month - October!

2011-10-13T07:27:00.000-07:00

While I was looking through my image collection for this months inspiration I came across this image which was "snapped" in August, when we were exploring out new area. During a walk we came across an old tree that had been blown over in the wind and in the hole where the roots had been a lot of bracket fungi were growing.

I was really taken with the autumnal colours, even in August, and the fern just set off the browns, yellows and ochres.

These colours are very "tweed" like and I could see this as a coat fabric with the lime green fern colour as an accent with lime green accessories!
I've been mulling over which dyes I'd use, but thought I'd leave that to you! What do you all think?

Colour Palette of the Month - September!

2011-09-11T09:42:00.000-07:00

I'm afraid I missed last month, with our move, I completely forgot to post the palette I'd selected, so here it is now, for September!

The photograph was actually taken way back in March on our annual teaching visit to The Netherlands. The second part of the trip was down in Zeeland near Zierikzee where we had chance to visit the local beach. It was a beautiful sunny, but blustery day and the beach was glinting in the sun, throwing shades of blue and terracotta between the stark white shells.

This is a lovely palette for natural dyeing, so tell me what dyes or dye extracts you'd use and how you'd get the shades? Would you use any modifiers or would you go for the pure dyes?

Wool Week

2011-09-08T09:47:00.001-07:00

Yes, it’s Wool Week, where we celebrate everything wool and the most interesting thing on the new this morning was the increase in the value of wool!

Since foot and mouth in 2001 the number of sheep have declined and as a result the value of the fleece have increased. Most British wool is sent to the Wool Board and is destined for carpets, which is such a shame, as that leave very little for British craftsmen and designers like me. I want British wool, we have the greatest and best range of sheep breeds and wool in the world which enables us to use the right wool for the right fabric.

I know someone who breeds a fabulous breed, the Bowmont, in Devon which rivals the best Merino and the whole clip is sold to make fine British base layer clothing for the active industry! We need more of this fabulous breed here in the UK, so that more fleece is available.

The same person, organised the Exmoor Fleece Fair and I’m told by a textile designer friend that there was the most fabulous Exmoor Horn/Merino cross sheep who’s fleece was to die for and reputed to have a micro count close to 18, although it’s not been tested yet! The organiser said that farmers where shocked that people were prepared to pay an extremely good premium for a quality fleece… Yes, there are lots of us out there who want quality British fleece for fashion and interiors fabrics and most of us know quality when we see it!

Wool cushions

If you’re one of those people who believe that wool is coarse and itchy, then you’ve not tried Merino base layer underwear! Take a look at the Campaign for Wool page and read about the benefits of wool. The variety of wool is truly amazing from the softest to the coarsest, from the most lustrous to the dullest, and everything in between, there really is the most wonderful variety and you should find a breed or cross breed that is suitable for your needs. We just need the farmers to produce the wool we want!

A really interesting way to Spin

2011-07-31T14:19:00.000-07:00

This is a really interesting way to spin those mixed fibres that aren't strong enough on their own!

Pure Tinctoria: Indigo Film Premiers in Santa Fe

2011-07-06T04:28:00.000-07:00

Pure Tinctoria: Indigo Film Premiers in Santa Fe: "http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=223137781060305"

Indigo Film Premiers in Santa Fe

2011-07-05T12:49:00.000-07:00

What a pity we're in the UK not the US. A new film about indigo was premiered there, on 6 July, featuring Hiroyuki Shindo, a contemporary Japaneses textile artist and master of indigo. The highlight is the filming of the whole process of making and using a fermentation vat.

This lovely little blog give a glimps of what might be expected in the film: http://kyototrip.blogspot.com/2010/10/hiroyuki-shindo-and-little-indigo.html

Colour Palette of the Month - July!

2011-07-01T13:21:00.000-07:00

Last September I took my youngest up to Aberdeen University and we stopped by the Winter Gardens in Duthie Park. What an amazing afternoon we spent there and I spent most of that time photographing the plants and flowers.

This months inspiration is one of the many beautiful flowers.

I absolutely adore this colour palette and think it might find it’s way into my new fabric collection to be launched in October. What do you think?

By the way, can any of you identify the flower?

It'll be a challenge to dye with naturals, don't you think, so let me know what dyes you'd use?

Crochet Artist

2011-06-05T09:50:00.000-07:00

At Wonderwool Wales this year the lovely Deborah Allen purchased some of our chunky boucle yarn from the discontinued basket. We can't get anymore of this divine yarn, it's no longer spun, so Deborah bought the lot!

Since then she's been busy crocheting the yarn into a fabulous jacket and I couldn't resist letting you see her handiwork and the beautiful colours.

Well done, Deborah, your work is truly inspiring.

PS you can get the pattern from Garnstudio

Colour Palette of the Month - June!

2011-06-01T13:47:00.000-07:00

I know this is an early spring picture but it's so beautiful I couldn't resist using it for the June colour palette, particularly as one or two people thought the April picture was rather dull for a Spring palette.

In March, three colleagues and I were lucky enough to teach a couple of workshops in The Netherlands and between workshops we went to Delft. These vivid tulips and anemones were in a flower shop we passed and we couldn't resist buying them.

What I love about this picture is the contrast in colours and the rich depth. The anemone was slightly more purple than is shown here, but even then it's really gorgeous.

So how would dye these colours? From right to left: 2% lodhra bark to get the lovely soft peach; 5% dhak (tessu flower) and annatto for the vivid yellow; 5% chaste tree and kamala; 5% acacia gum and cutch; 4 dips of indigo; 5% acacia gum over dyed with a couple of dips in indigo.

What would you do?

How would you use these colours?

Learn your ABC with a Dyer!

2011-05-30T08:33:00.000-07:00

B is for......

Books! I don't know about anyone else, but I can't do without them. I tend to use them as a resource for trying new techniques, problem solving (there's always an answer somewhere on the bookshelf) and as source of inspiration (often travel, gardening or art books).

I've always got a note book in my bag, as well as a small sketchbook, pen, 2B pencil, rubber, sharpener and very small water colour kit as well as my trusty camera!

Novels are my bedtime reading, not crime, though. I can happily drift off to sleep mid-paragraph.

How about you? What's your favourite natural dyeing book?

Learn your ABC with a Dyer!

2011-05-25T14:01:00.000-07:00

A is for Anthurium, that waxy flower grown throughout the world and, in particular, Hawaii.

I first discovered them when I was looking for inspiration for my final project at Bradford College in 2004. The resulting designs and products I’ve woven as a result of the anthurium inspiration have brought me continued recognition.

This little colour palette, that I worked for a yarn I designed for Yarnmaker magazine, features one of my favourite colours.

We could use Red Lac, for the red and the pink and Cutch Waste for the khaki green, what would you use?

Colour Palette of the Month - May!

2011-05-06T13:25:00.000-07:00

Last month I picked an image of a building in The Hague that made me think of rugs for my colour palette inspiration. However, one or two people thought it was a bit dull for a Spring palette.

This month I've picked a beautiful cornflower image. I snapped the cornflowers in Rochfort sur Mar while I was on the Wednesday morning excursion at ISEND.

When trying to replicate the dye colours I'd try:

Green - kamala over-dyed with indigo.

Blue/green - myrobalan over-dyed with indigo.

Bottle green - kamala with two dips in indigo.

Bright blue - five minutes in indigo.

Pale blue - one minute in indigo.

Red - a mix of red lac and kamala.

I hope you like it. Let me know what you think, does it work for you? What dyes would you use?

Colour Palette of the Month - April!

2011-04-02T12:01:00.000-07:00

Last month Jane Deane, Amanda Hannaford, Helen Melvin and I were in The Hague for a workshop. It was arranged by Dineke de With, who lives in Leidschendam just north of the city. We were making our way to catch the tram into The Hague when we came across this building which immediately made Jane and I think "Rug"!

I was tempted to rotate the image of the building 90 degrees, laying it on it's side, more reminiscent of a rug, but resisted. Would you have rotated it? I'd be interested to know.

So what colours would I use to dye the yarn for my rug?
From Left to Right:
Golden dock modified with iron.
Golden dock modified with copper.
Myrobalan modified with citric acid.
Myrobalan modified with iron.
Cutch.
Golden dock modified with washing soda.
Pomegranate modified with iron.
Red lac modified with iron.
Don't for get that these colours are with my water, they may vary with the water in your area.
What would you use?

Colour Palette of the Month - March!

2011-03-04T13:48:00.000-08:00

I was given this image by Wendy Freebourne, a talented knitware designer from Bath.

The colours are so warm and rich that I couldn't resist using them for this months colour palette.

So what dye extracts would you use for this palette?

I'd give the following extracts a try, from the top:
Black - indigo and an iron modifier.
Khaki green - kamala and a light dip in indigo.
Rust - sappenwood.
Beige - cutch.
Buff - himalayan rhubarb with a copper modifier.

Another Technique to Try!

2011-02-15T12:39:00.000-08:00

Ikat and faux Ikat (painted warps) are two techniques that can be used with natural dye extracts and I found an outline of the instructions on HandEye Magazine courtesy of Aviva Leigh, a dyer and weaver from Norfolk. Take a look and have a go yourself.

Colour Palette of the Month - February!

2011-02-01T13:35:00.000-08:00

In November I was in Liverpool for a birthday treat. Obviously a trip to the docks is a must and while there I took this photograph.

Initially it was the shapes that attracted me, but once uploaded to Photoshop the colours caught my eye and following my interest in urban colour I decided to use it for my February colour palette.

How would I recreate the colours in natural dye extracts?

From Left to Right:
Several dips of indigo; a pale yellow, maybe oak gall or 2% kamala with a couple of dips indigo; oak gall or 2% kamala with one light dip of indigo; a very light dip in indigo; two or three dip in indigo; one short dip in indigo and finally a 2% red lac or a mix of red lac and lodhra bark.

How would you recreate the colours?

I hope you enjoy it.

Printing with Natural Dyes

2011-01-12T00:09:00.000-08:00

I want to bring you a post from an interesting textile blog I found. It's aimed at textile students throughout the world and there is a lot of industry information on it, but came across an interesting post about printing with natural dyes. It's not very detailed, but it will give you enough information for you to work out how to do it! My Textile Notes is the name of the blog and has lots of interesting information.

Any of the Pure Tinctoria natural mordants are full of tannins, oak gall (on the left) and cutch are the usual ones to use and myrobalan for the mordant printing are all available on the Pure Tinctoria website.

Thickeners such as Agar Agar and Gum Tragacanth are natural and easily obtained on the high street.

Let use know if you have had a go at natural printing or if you are planning to! We'd love to see your results.

Ways to use Your Dye Extracts

2011-01-04T04:19:00.000-08:00

I'm always looking for interesting ways to use my dye extracts and have been painting with the dyes on wool and wool/mix fibres, yarn and silk hankies for quite a while. I want to bring you lots of different techniques over the next year and to start I've got a blog post from Dionne Swift, a textile artist from Huddersfield, who draws, paints, dyes, prints, stitches and embellishes.

Her latest blog post shows her in her studio drawing with Procion dyes on fabric. I'm not a lover of Procion dyes, there is a lot of dye residue that washes out of the fabrics which goes down the sink, but we can use natural dye extracts in the same way by thickening the dyes in solution. If you don't want to use Manutex, as Dionne does, gum tragacanth can be used and is available at cake decorating supplies.

Helen Melvins book, Colours of the Rainbow, shows you how to use natural dye extracts with a thickener on fabric. All Helens books are very useful and well worth having on your shelf. Her knowledge of natural dyes and indigo in particular are unsurpassed.

Colour Palette of the Month - January!

2011-01-01T12:35:00.000-08:00

This beautiful bouquet was given to me last year by a friend I'd helped through a difficult period in her life. I found it so inspiring that I used it for January's colour palette.

Good greens are difficult to obtain in natural dyeing, but I think the left one of the two greens, here, would be produced by using dhak and indigo and the second one might be obtained by modifying with iron water. The yellow is certainly like dhak and the centre cream colour might be the natural fleece colour or oak gall.

What do you think?

Interesting article about Indigo

2010-12-14T13:33:00.000-08:00

Take a look at this article on the online magazine, Hand and Eye. Learn about the symbolism of indigo in the African state of Benin.

Benin Blues - Article

Winner of the Pure Tinctoria Facebook Fan Page Draw!

2010-12-14T11:11:00.000-08:00

Hi all,

I drew the winning name out of the hat yesterday and you can see it below:

The lucky winner will receive a voucher code to win 200g of hand dyed sock or aran yarn of their choice. We will be doing this again when we reach 100 Fans who "like" our page. So to be in with a chance click on the Fan Page button on the right!

Colour Inspirations from Landscapes - 2

2010-12-12T09:21:00.000-08:00

Take a look at my images of Scotland, posted on my Facebook profile:
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=252764&id=770223841&l=7354c8f931

Pick your favourite by commenting on it and I'll produce a colour palette from the most popular image! We can then have a discussion on which dyes we'd use to produce the colours!

I'll start you off with this image from the album:
I love the smokey colours and the deep indigo blues!

Colour Palette of the Month - December!

2010-12-01T14:29:00.000-08:00

I love colour and find it really hard to work with neutrals and monochromatic palettes. It's strange then, that in this monochromatic snowy and frosty landscape I'm beginning to adjust!

Monday morning, this week, was really frosty in the Trent Valley and I couldn't help but take this photograph at 8.30 while out for our morning walk.

When I downloaded the image from my Blackberry I was really taken with the lovely rich browns, creams and apricots, moving me to use it as my palette for December and as my Seasonal Greetings card. It puts a new twist on winter colours! It's certainly not winter white, is it?

Dyeing the lovely rich colours would be a challenge and I think I'd use cutch (Thar) or sappenwood (Garden) with iron water for the browns and cutch for the apricot shade, with oak gall for the cream. What would you use?

Pure Tinctoria Facebook Fan Page

2010-11-05T14:51:00.000-07:00

Please "like" our Facebook Fan Page by clicking on the link on the Facebook Badge on the right of this blog.

If you click on if in November you'll be entered into a draw to win 200g of our sock yarn or aran yarn in the colour or colours of your choice.

Our sock yarn is 70% Blue Faced Leicester wool and 30% nylon to give it strength and is dyed with our lovely natural dye extracts.

Good luck. Oh and tell your friends so that they get the chance to win too!

Colour Palette of the Month - November!

2010-10-29T09:56:00.000-07:00

Colour Inspirations from Urban Landscapes
At the beginning of October I had a lovely week-end in London. On the Saturday I wanted to go to the Tate Modern to see the Gaugan Exhibition and decided to walk along part of the Embankment to the Millenium Bridge.
Along the way I came across quite a few juxtapositions of old buildings and new buildings as you can see on the right. This particular one really caught my eye with the "all glass" building that takes on an indigo colour in the background and the beautiful old building, with it's sand coloured brick and detailing stone work.
How lovely this colour palette would be in natural dyes and weave! From the top I'd use indigo with an iron modification; indigo on it's own, but dipped several times to build up the deep blue; a very light, quick dip in indigo with a very quick and light modification with iron to get the blue grey; Oak Gall modified with citric acid; cutch.
Mm..... This has really got me thinking! What about you, what would you use?

Colour Palette of the Month - October

2010-10-05T13:01:00.000-07:00

Last month I took my daughter to University in Aberdeen, while there we visited the Winter Gardens, a series of Victorian glass houses in Duthie Park south of the city.

I love anthuriums, they are a recurring theme in my work. They are such strong flowers, strong in form, shape and colour and are the inspiration for this months colour palette. I worked on this palette when we got back from Aberdeen and just before we went to exhibit at 100% Design. By coincidence one of the strong colours at the show was magenta!

I hope you enjoy this palette with or without the green I’ve added as a contrast. Green's not an easy colour to get accurately in natural dyes, but it's worth a try to get one of these greens, so try indigo with dhak. For the magenta try a little purple lac for the pale version at the bottom and with a little copper water for the second from the bottom. For the dark colour how about trying a short indigo dip with red lac at 4%.

Colours of Kinder Scout!

2010-08-07T13:17:00.000-07:00

Last Sunday, as our tribute to National Parks week, we walked from Barber Booth and up onto Kinder Scout, the highest point in the Peak District National Park, in Derbyshire.

It was a dry day, mostly, but up on Kinder we felt very close to the lowering clouds. I'd never been up on top and was very saddened by the terrible erosion, but amazed by the rock formations and lovely muted colours.

Here is one of the wonderful rock formations that inspired me to produce this colour palette. I just need to work out which extracts to use and which modifiers!

Centre Pull Ball Dyeing in Two Colours

2010-08-04T12:36:00.000-07:00

This is a short presentation showing how to dye centre-pull balls in two colours using natural dye extracts. I hope it will give you some new ideas to increase your creativity. Enjoy!

More Bamboo Bad News!

2010-07-29T02:52:00.000-07:00

Following the previous post about bamboo, I've been alerted to another website that has information on the processing of bamboo into fibre and ultimately into fabric:
http://green.wikia.com/wiki/Bamboo:_An_Eco-Friendly_Fabric%3F

Don't be confused by the advert for Honda at the top of the article! It's well worth a read and gives an really good insight into the "horrors" of bamboo that I had hope wouldn't come true, but sadly has.

How to Dye Wood

2010-07-23T10:12:00.000-07:00

I'm often asked if Pure Tinctoria natural dye extracts can be used to dye wood and my answer is yes they can, but I'm not sure how.

Now I know! My craft & design student has done some research for me, as he wants to use the dyes to stain wood he is using to produce furniture and has given me the link to a useful website. The main gist of the information is to dye wood using plants, but could easily be used with extracts.

Darren has gone home with some of the extracts, red lace, cutch waste and dhak (tesu flower) and says he will do some experiments for me. He really is a star! I will post his results on this blog.

Colour Inspirations from Landscapes

2010-07-21T13:35:00.000-07:00

A two day break in Anglesey has given me three beautiful colour palettes, one very fresh, one very warm and one a combination of warm and cool.

The first was inspired by the heathland above South Stacks Lighthouse on Holy Island. These fresh colours reflect the low growing heather and gorse.

The yellow could be dyed by using dhak or Himalayan rhubarb root. The greens could be obtained by over dyeing the same colours with indigo and the pinks could be dyed by a weak solution of red lac and oak gall.

The next palette shows the fabulous earthy colours found on Parys Mountain, near Amlwch, on the north side of the island.

The rich, warm colours lend themselves to natural dyes beautifully. Oak gall, golden dock, and a weak solution of purple lac lightly over dyed with indigo and oak gall also lightly over dyed with indigo would all be worth trying to obtain the colours.

Finally, these blues and soft beiges were inspired by the beach at Aberffraw on the south of Anglesey. The blues can be found in indigo and the sand colours could be found in oak gall or sanderswood natural dye extracts.

Ayurvedic Clothing!

2010-07-14T12:46:00.000-07:00

Here's a reason to dye your fabric, yarn or fibres to be made into clothing with natural dye's, extracts or otherwise!
Read all about a clothing label that is doing just that. Anjelika Krishna of A.D.O. is reviving the ancient tradition of Ayurvastra, literally "life dress" or infusing clothing with medicinal herbs which also dye the fabrics.

Woolfest 2010

2010-06-28T10:08:00.000-07:00

Back from Woolfest where we met a lot of lovely new people and a lot of old friends.

Lorraine and I launched a new range of dyed wool yarns; Bluefaced Leicester Aran and Bluefaced Leicester and nylon sock yarn, both in a lovely range of colours.

The hand painted cutch waste and red lac and the hand painted rhubarb root and purple lac where hot favourites. So watch out for these on the Pure Tinctoria website in the next week.

Lodhra Bark/Oak Gall

2010-06-20T03:35:00.001-07:00

Despite stringent controls I've found that I've been sent oak gall instead of lodhra bark by the manufacturer. This mistake will have occured because they insist that I use Trade Names rather than the plant name!

If you've found that your lodhra bark gives a pale cream colour instead of the lovely orange, please let me know and I'll replace it free of charge and post free.

If you're not sure which is which a rather crude description of lodhra bark is that the extract looks like brown sweepings from the floor while oak gall looks like a yellow brown powder.

I'm so sorry this has happened and will ensure that it doesn't happen again.

Best wishes

Alison

Knockando Woolmill - Speyside, Scotland

2010-06-19T03:15:00.000-07:00

This fabulous mill was on a BBC programme a couple of years ago, I think. Does anyone remember the programme and what happened to this gem?

mudbatik-natural dye process 10 min.wmv

2010-06-16T10:05:00.000-07:00

Here is an interesting video showing how to use mud as a resist when natural dyeing.

In Search of Lost Colour: UNESCO short

2010-06-16T09:46:00.000-07:00

This is just a short video produced by UNESCO, but interesting never the less. It shows a range of dyes from across the globe.

Workshop at the Bowland Guild of Weavers, Spinners and Dyers

2010-06-13T10:04:00.000-07:00

On May Day I was at the Bowland Guild in Lancashire to tutor a workshop using Pure Tinctoria natural dye extracts. It was a lovely day weather wise and proved to be a lovely day teaching wise, too!

I was amazed at the number of people attending, I usually limit the numbers to 10, but they were prepared to bring more electric hot plates and additional pots, so we had at least 16! And with the remainder of the guild spinning at the far end of the room, away from our hot plates, the room was packed. Obviously Health and Safety came into very strict play, to prevent any accidents and everyone was really patient waiting their turn to weight dyes and yarns/fibres.

Here are a selection of pictures that the guild took at one of their meeting the following month which shows what a fabulous range of yarns were produced that day.

Yarns ranged from handspun to commercial, fine to chunky, plain to boucle!

We did centre pull ball dyeing using two colours, painted yarns and fibres and indigo!

There were fibres including tops and home produced alpaca and mohair.

And every colour of the rainbow was produce.

All in a day!

Amazing!

Another New Retailer!

2010-05-28T01:51:00.000-07:00

Hurrah, we've got another new retailer, this time in the US.

So if you live in the United States and are looking for a fabulous range of natural dye extracts, please take a look at Talia's beautiful website: International Fleeces

If you don't like shopping via the internet, here's the International Fleeces contact details:
International Fleeces
2308 Sheridan Street
Laramie
WY 820070

(307) 742-3140

Talia has worked really hard over the last few weeks getting all the information correct and deserves your patronage so join me in wishing her well with this new venture.

Alison

Solar Dyeing

2010-05-22T05:44:00.000-07:00

Hi,

this is nothing new, but for me it is. It's something I've always wanted to do, but never found the time or had the right weather to do it!

Recently I joined the Sustainable Natural Dye Practice Yahoo Group and this month we have been studying annatto. As usual, I've been rather busy and not had time to do any dyeing to speak of, just dye packing! But today, Saturday, one of my weave students didn't turn up, so rather than waste the day I got out my stainless steel pot with glass lid, annatto and some fibres, fabrics and yarn and made a start. Better late than never, you all might say.

I already had some Corridale fibre and a silk scarf that had been pre-mordanted in alum and cream of tartar, a small amount of merino, un-mordanted, and with a small hank of un-mordanted cotton yarn that totalled 100g. I put 5g of annatto into a small amount of warm water to dissolve and put this in my pot, adding sufficient warm water to cover my fibres, fabric and yarn that had been soaking in warm soapy water.

I added the wetted goods, put on the glass lid and it's now in the garden in full sun! It'll have to be moved around to keep in the sun, but that's not a hardship. I'll periodically check the temperature to see how it's cooking, just out of curiosity more than anything. When it's dull I'll put it on the south facing window sill in the house and hopefully keep it cooking for at least 3 days! Not really sure how long to cook it for, all the references on the internet give different times, ranging from 1 day (8 hours) to 3 weeks!

I've just checked the temperature with my dye thermometer and it's not quite up to 50oC, so it looks like it'll be a few days, at least before it's ready to be rinsed. It's the ideal temperature for indigo, but not for my annatto.

Sustainability

2010-05-06T12:20:00.000-07:00

I've just finished quite a busy few weeks looking at sustainability.

It began with the Rebecca Early lecture and workshop at Nottingham Trent University. Becky has been doing a lot of research into sustainability and with a group of lecturers at the Chelsea College of Art and Design set up TEDResearch. Please take a look at Rebecca's website and at the TED website which has some interesting and very useful resources and while you're there don't forget to sign up for their newsletter!

Last week saw me at NTU again, for the Private view of Akihiko Izukura's exhibtion, Life in Colours. Running alongside the exhibition has been a set of four workshops which explore Mr Izukura's philosophy of natural textiles, Spinning, Reeling, Dyeing and Weaving and Braiding.

The exhibition is a revelation and a profusion of colour! Who said natural dyeing was boring! If you've in the Nottingham area is really is worth tracking down the exhibition at NTU's Bonington Gallery, your won't be disappointed unless you hate colour! If weaving is your thing, you won't help being amazed at the skill of his weaving of traditional sashes, Obi, or his skill in braiding which is manipulated to fit the body.

The morning following the Private View I attended a Spinning workshop with Mr Izukura. It wasn't what I'd call spinning, but was very interesting, never the less. We had six silk worm cocoons that had been de-gummed and which contained two silk worms. These "double" cocoons are not good for reeling as the two silk worms in the one cocoon cause the silk filament to tangle. We pulled the softened cocoons into rectangles then moulded them over balloons and plastic to form 3D shapes, which were then painted with rice paste to stiffen then when the paste dried.

The afternoon was followed with the Natural Dye workshop, which for me was so wonderfully refreshing and completely different to any natural dyeing that I do. I chose to dye a silk scarf which had been woven in Mr Izukura's factory in Kyoto, Japan. The warp was spun silk and the weft was noil silk and took the dyes beautifully.

I wetted my scarf, pleated it diagonally, forming a small triangle which I then pleated across the triangle and tied with two elastic bands. I dipped one end in logwood, the other in cochineal, the top of the centre in walnut and the bottom centre in clove.

To fix the dyes I dipped the whole scarf in Camillia Ash water, then dipped the ends in fermented iron water. This picture really doesn't do the colours justice. What was amazing in this workshop was that we didn't use any heat and the dipped very quickly!

I was back again this week for a Reeling Workshop, where we reeled six cocoons into 3D shapes over balloons and plastic cylinders. Very similar to the Spinning workshop, but using the filament silk rather than the noil. We spent the afternoon weaving and braiding naturally dyed paper yarn into an interesting "neck piece".

My whole practice has been questioned by these events, how can I make my practice more sustainable and how do I take on board Mr Izukura's philosophy, putting nature before ego and practice!

So much food for thought.

Naturally Dyed Rug by Janet Walker

2010-05-04T03:46:00.000-07:00

One of Jane Deane's spinning and weaving students has handspun and dyed her yarn for a beautiful rug.

Janet used indigo, purple lac, red lac, madder and a yellow (that Jane couldn't remember!) all from the Pure Tinctoria range.

Take a look at the image on the right to see her fabulous result.

New Website

2010-04-12T07:28:00.000-07:00

Hi all

You will know from a previous post that we have had to find a new web host and new eCommerce shop and that we've had real problems with the company we thought would provide the service.

Well, we are really pleased to announce that we have a beautiful new website:
www.pure-tinctoria.co.uk which has been provided by a really helpful company, iWebshop. We had a slight hiccup over the week end, as the Paypal Express Checkout wouldn't work properly, but Phillip has worked on this and we are delighted to announce that Pure Tinctoria is back!

Here is an image of our new front page and you will find new pages, including the ability to download the instructions before you buy the dyes and if you lose your free copies that come with the dyes!

Two New Retailers in Europe!

2010-04-11T02:16:00.000-07:00

We are delighted to have Dineke De With and Alet Teinpont as retailers of Pure Tinctoria natural dye extracts, they can be found at:

De Spinners
Binckhorstlaan 36
2516 BE Den Haag
Nertherlands

Telephone: 070 - 3973643
Mobile: 06 28 44 37 79
Email: info@despinners.nl

Find Dineke's online shop here:
www.despinners.nl

Textielwerk Wol en Zo
Nieuwe Noorddijkseweg2
4305 RA Ouverkerk
Netherlands

Telephone: 0111 416614
Mobile: 06 51 37 62 66
Email: info@textielwerk.com

Alet's online shop can be found at:
www.textielwerk.com

Pure Tinctoria Website

2010-03-28T03:45:00.000-07:00

Hi All

I just wanted to update you about the Pure Tinctoria website, which is undergoing changes. The company, Startershop, I have my e-commerce website with has decided they don't want to manage e-commerce sites anymore, so I am having to look for a new website and host.

I thought I'd found one as good as Startershop, but sadly they have let me down, in fact, on more than one occasion. What should have taken less than a week is still ongoing and therefore I am still with the old site, but having taken our an advert in a couple of magazines, to promote my new domain name, some new or potential customers will find that they can't access the new site, which appears as under construction and it feeds them to the wrong old site!

Please bear with me, I'm finding it very, very stressful, but will full fill all orders as speedily as usual. If you hear of anyone who has tried to access either site and not succeeded, please direct them to my email address or telephone number and I will deal with their order that way in my usual efficient manner!

I hope to get a new site up and running before Wonderwool Wales, but am holding my breathe!

Best wishes

Alison

A Felt Maker and Spinner uses Pure Tinctoria

2010-02-16T01:55:00.000-08:00

Debbie Allen from the West Midlands has been experimenting with our natural dye extracts and has produced some lovely trial yarns. Take a look at her blog to see what she's been up to!
http://feltersjourney.blogspot.com/2010/02/experimental-projects.html

Colour Inspiration

2009-12-02T12:09:00.000-08:00

If your looking for colour inspiration, take a look at this beautiful blog: Kris's Color Stipes

Beautiful colour stripes inspired by the bloggers life and fabulous textiles. Well worth a scroll down the whole page!

More Places to buy Pure Tinctoria Extracts

2009-11-24T06:44:00.000-08:00

You can buy Pure Tinctoria Dyes from the following places:

Eco-Haberdashery Shop
Unit 1.10 OXO Tower Wharf, facing the river.
Opening hours: 12pm-6pm, Tues-Sat.
http://www.anniesherburne.co.uk/shop.html

Jane Deane
Duchy Square Centre For Creativity
Tavistock Road
Princetown
Devon
PL20 6QF

Tel: 01822 612338
Email: jane@janedeane.co.uk
http://www.janedeane.co.uk/puretinctoria.html

We will be having a stockist in the Netherlands soon, so watch this space!

Summer Competition

2009-10-19T08:40:00.001-07:00

It's been very busy here, and feel very guilty that we haven't announced the winner of the Summer Competition!
So without much ado, we can announce that Sarah Johnson has won the Mini Starter Kit for her lovely had design, which Alison is busy knitting up now and will be featured in a later blog.
Mary Wilson won the Spring 4 Collection for her mitten pattern. Sadly we can't use both pattern as we don't have enough yarn.

Well done Sarah and Mary.

1 more week to enter our Summer Competition

2009-09-01T02:24:00.000-07:00

We launched this competition way back at the beginning of July and today is 1 September! Were has the Summer gone, it really feels like Autumn now.

We are giving you another week, until the children go back to school, to put your thinking caps on and then we will close it and select the winners. There have been some lovely ideas, so it's going to be a hard task to pick the one to use and the runner-up.

By the way, there is no need to purchase anything from the Pure Tinctoria website, just click on the Contact Us button in the top right hand corner and fill in the contact form! You will be automatically entered into the competition and if picked will win one of two prizes and have your idea produced in the yarn and featured on the Pure Tinctoria website and on this blog. So come on what are you waiting for..................

Dyeing with Plants

2009-08-23T08:37:00.000-07:00

I've been notified by the Administrator at the University of Bristol Botanic Gardens that they have 2 new courses for the autumn:

Natural dyes from plants - exploring the past and present uses. Five meetings weekly from 7 September 2009, 7pm to 9pm in the Linnaeus Study Room, University of Bristol Botanic Gardens.

Indigo and Woad. A one day course, 10am to 5pm on 19 September, 2009 in the Linnaeus Study Room, University of Bristol Botanic Gardens.

The tutor for both these courses is Dr David J Hill, BSc, DPhil, MIEEM.

If you are interested in either or both of these courses please contact the following address or telephone number:
Adminsitrator
University of Bristol Botanic Garden
Hollybush Lane
Stoke Bishop
BS9 1JB

Telephone: 0117 331 4906
Fax: 0117 331 4909

Full details of the courses can be found at the following link:
http://www.bristol.ac.uk/Depts/BotanicGardens/about/education.htm

Summer Competition Update

2009-07-24T04:09:00.000-07:00

We are starting to get some lovely ideas from you all for our Summer Competition, ranging from a Multi-Directional Scarf to knitted mittens! Please keep the ideas coming in.

For those of you who missed our post about the competition, here are the rules:

Alison has spun some Shetland tops, she dyed earlier this year, and can't decide what to make from the yarn she has produced and is asking for your help. In return you can win one of two packs of dyes - a Mini Starter Kit or a Spring 4 Collection.

Alison dyed one 50g lot of Shetland tops with Myrobalan, Madder and Acacia Gum and the other 50gs was dyed with Red Lac and Annatto. She pulled staple lengths of fibre from each top and spun these in turn. The resulting singles yarn was then Navajo plyed (3 ply), to keep the lovely colours separate. There are approximately 8 - 9 wraps to an inch (Double Double/Chunky Yarn!) and approx. 250 yards in all.

We are looking for a suitable knitting or crochet pattern or whatever you can come up with that stylish and bang on trend!

For your chance to win one of the two dye kits you will need to visit the Pure Tinctoria website and either place an order and leave your idea in the comment section or click on Contact Us at the top right hand side of the website and leave your email address, name and message. The item that is produced from the winning idea will be featured on the Pure Tinctoria website and on this blog. We are looking forward to your ideas.

Good luck, oh, and the closing date is Monday 31 August, so there's just over a month for you to put your thinking caps on!

Sarah Pearson Cooke

2009-07-21T09:44:00.000-07:00

I've just had a lovely email from Sarah Pearson Cooke: -

"I have been demonstrating and showing my work at Art in Action for the last four days and just wanted to let you know that I was endorsing your fabulous dyes! I hope you are not overwhelmed too much with orders, although I am sure this is not a bad thing! I have used your extracted natural dyes for some time on my peace silk cloth which I dye using Shibori processes. Your dyes were very well received at the event and are an important aspect in my journey in working to improving my ethical and environmental impact. I do hope you do not mind me passing on your business details to those who were interested."

Not only does Sarah use Peace Silk in her work, but some lovely hemp/silk fabric too, read about this here! Take a look a Sarah's lovely scarves and interior products to see how she uses our dyes. I particularly like her new Darjeeling Collection, such lovely greens and blues! oh, and take peek at her Online Boutique where she has a sale, I'm sure you will be tempted!

Indigo Workshop

2009-07-13T04:45:00.000-07:00

Jane Deane is running an Indigo Dye Workshop at the Duchy Centre for Creativity in Princetown, Devon on Saturday 8 August from 10am to 4pm.

Jane's a great teacher and this will be a great day. So if you live in the area or are on holiday and can spare that Saturday you will be in for a treat for just £35 for the day., which is tremendous value. See the Duchy Website for details. Just go to events and scroll down to the Indigo Dye Workshop link and you will be able to send for all the information you need to enroll on the course.

Pure Tinctoria Summer Competition

2009-07-06T04:46:00.000-07:00

Hi all

We are running a competition at Pure Tinctoria, this summer. Alison has spun some Shetland tops, she dyed earlier this year, and can't decide what to make from the yarn she has produced and is asking for your help. In return you can win one of two packs of dyes - a Mini Starter Kit or a Spring 4 Kit.

Alison dyed one 50g lot of Shetland tops with Myrobalan, Madder and Acacia Gum and the other 50gs was dyed with Red Lac and Annatto. She pulled staple lengths of fibre from each top and spun these in turn. The resulting singles yarn was then Navajo plyed (3 ply), to keep the lovely colours separate. There are approximately 8 - 9 wraps to an inch (Double Double/Chunky Yarn!) and approx. 250 yards in all.

Alison is looking for a suitable knitting or crochet pattern or whatever you can come up with that stylish and bang on trend!

For your chance to win one of the two dye kits you will need to visit the Pure Tinctoria website and either place an order and leave your idea in the comment section or click on Contact Us at the top right hand side of the website and leave your email address, name and message. The item that is produced from the winning idea will be featured on the Pure Tinctoria website and on this blog. We are looking forward to your ideas.

Good luck

Jenny Dean's Red & Purple Lac Experiments

2009-07-02T02:06:00.000-07:00

I've just been trying to catch up with blog posts that I've been following. Rather late, I know, but I came across this blog post by Jenny Dean.
As you may know, Jenny Dean is a wonderfully experienced dyer and I have all of her books! She is the one person who has inspired me to keep dyeing naturally over the years.
Well, to the point, Jenny did some lovely dyeing experiments with red and purple lac way back in December and I wanted to draw your attention to her results. If you follow the following link you will see the results of modification on the lac which are truly wonderful: http://www.jennydean.co.uk/wordpress/?p=214
Many thanks Jenny!

Woolfest 09

2009-06-19T01:28:00.000-07:00

This is my 3rd year at Woolfest and to say thank you to all my customers I'm offering a discount this year. Please take a look at the website to see what you have to do the get the discount and while your there make a list of what you think you might want!

Looking forward to seeing you all again on stand D89.

Alison

Busy, Busy, Busy!

2009-06-18T13:14:00.000-07:00

I've not had much time to post just recently, I've been busy at the week-ends for the last month and preparing for them during the week.

At the end of May I was invited by the York and District Guild to tutor a "Backstrap Weaving Workshop" at Coberhill just north of Scarborough. I had a lovely time, the weather was perfect, although we spent it in doors most of the time, the accommodation and food at Coberhill was good and the people on the course were a delight! When I find my camera I'll post some images!

The following Saturday I was in Amersham talking to the Berkshire Guild about "Creative Spinning". After a terribly rainy start to the journey it ended in sunshine and a rewarding talk to the guild. Another lovely group of people.

Last week-end was our Guild Open Day. Beautiful weather brought out a lot of people and we all had a great time, not least because two of the husbands served the tea and coffee and the wonderful lunch we had all contributed to, leaving us plenty of time to spin, natter and shop with Vicky Smedley of MoBears, Janet Phillips of The Threashing Barn and Michael Williams with his wonderful drop spindles and spinning, weaving and lace making tools, amongst others.

This coming Saturday, I'm off to talk to the Oxford Guild on the Saturday afternoon and tutor a workshop on the Sunday. The talk is about how Jane Deane and I approached the Book and the workshop is "Creative Spinning". I really love what I do and enjoy passing on skills, ideas and encouraging creativity.

Then it's Woolfest! Woo Hoo! It's hard work, but so, so enjoyable and give everyone a great chance to catch up with old and new friends in the spinning, weaving and dyeing world. I for one am looking forward to the buzz of the two days and the Tatty Pot supper and Spin In.

See you there!

Mordanting Cellulose Fibres

2009-05-22T02:28:00.000-07:00

I was reading Deb Bamfords blog, A History of Colour, today and her post was about mordanting cellulose fibres. This prompted me write about some mordanting I did earlier this year with my friend Lorraine.

Those of you who visit Pure Tinctoria at Woolfest and Wonderwool Wales will know Lorraine as my very able helper. I wanted to reward Lorraine for all the help she gives me at these events and won't take a penny in recompense. Knowing she likes makeing quilts, last year I gave her a dyeing kit and cotton fabric for her birthday, and we got together to do the mordanting.

Now, I'm a passionate advocate for wool, British in particular, so I had to get out all my books to check how to do the mordanting properly! I knew I could do it in a one stage process, using aluminium acetate, but Lorraine wanted to do it "traditionally" with the everything in her "kit". So we opted to follow the alum, tannin, alum process. The tannin component was Amber-M (Oak Gall).

I was really impressed with the fabulous colours we got. They are so rich.

This image is of the colours before Lorraine pressed the fabric, but even then they are really beautiful. From Left to Right they are:
Ganges (Dhak), Amazon (Annatto), Rhine-M (Red Lac) and Rhine-S (Purple Lac).

Rhubarb and Custard Update!

2009-05-14T04:29:00.001-07:00

Well I've finally managed to take a photograph of my Rhubarb and Custard scarf and here it is.
I can't give you the pattern for this one as it's copyright, but it's knitted on the diagonal.

I spun the Shetland fibres by taking alternate staple lengths of each colour, red lac and marigold. I didn't want precise staples so that I got a good mix of red lac with red lac and marigold with marigold and red lac with marigold when I plied the two singles.

Rhubarb and Custard!

2009-04-17T03:13:00.001-07:00

Hi, do you remember the hanks of wool yarn and Shetland tops I dyed at the end of last month, well I've spun up the 2% Red Lac (Rhine-M) and the 2% Marigold (Ambrosia) and here is the result.

I'm really delighted with the hank which is pun on my Jumbo flyer. I took staple lengths of each colour, alternating each colour as I spun. The staple lengths weren't accurately weighed as I wanted some overlap of the colours.

I'm going to knit it into a diagonal scarf, from a pattern I was shown in The Hague at Dineke's workshop last month, which I'm hoping will give me some subtle diagonal stripes. If I have any left I might just get out my Knitters Loom and weave a narrow scarf, too.

Fame at last!!

2009-04-03T02:52:00.000-07:00

I was interviewed earlier this week by The Textiles Directory and have been featured in this weeks Friday Focus. Please take some time to read the interview here. You will also get a chance to win a Mini Starter Kit if you read all the way through to the end!

It was quite an in depth interview and hope that it will give every one some ideas of how to use natural dye extracts and some food for thought. Some of the ideas will be used in this blog in the coming months, in a little more detail, so please keep an eye open or subscribe to our RSS feed.

I was also contacted by Ethical Living magazine with a query from one of there reads. I'm hoping the answer to the query will be in a future issue of that magazine and that I will be able to do some articles with them in the future.

In the mean time have a look at the Pure Tinctoria online shop and have a great week-end.

Alison

Shetland Tops in Natural Dyes

2009-03-19T03:40:00.000-07:00

Well I've spun up one of the Shetland tops I dyed at the demo on Saturday. (Tops 6)

I spun it on Monday and have been knitting a lovely spiral scarf that I was shown in The Hague.

This is the pattern:
Cast on 20 stitches
K one row
*Slip the 1st st, K 8, Yfwd, sl 1 P wise, Turn
P to end (10 st)
Sl 1st st, K 6, Yfwd, sl 1 P wise, Turn
P to end (8st)
Sl 1st st, K 4, yfwd, sl 1 P wise, Turn
P to end (6 st)
Sl 1st st, K 4, (pick up loop under next st and k together with that st, K 1) repeat once, Pick up next loop and k with st. P to end
Repeat from * until desired length is achieved, cast off and secure ends.

It's a really easy pattern and can be knitted in any yarn with any needles! Thanks to Dineke of De Spinners who showed me how!

Clay Cross Lace and Textile Celebration Day

2009-03-16T08:28:00.000-07:00

Hi all

on Saturday I was invited to the above event in Derbyshire. In the morning I did a natural dye extracts demonstration and produced the lovely hanks and tops you can see on the right.
The hanks were 95% Blue Face Leicester with a 5% nylon binder and the tops were Shetland.
From the right:
Hank 1 - an immersion bath of Lodhra Bark (Amber-L).
Hank 2 - I painted this one with Annatto (Amazon) and Red Lac (Rhine-M).
Tops 1 - an immersion bath of a mix of Annatto and Red Lac.
Hank 3 - painted with Madder (Indus), Acacia Gum (Caspian) and Kamala (Basant).
Tops 2 - I painted this one with Madder (Indus), AcaciaGum (Caspian) and Myrobalan (Kango).
Tops 3 - this lovely baby pink was an immersion bath of 2% Red Lac (Rhine-M).
Tops 4 - a lovely soft lemon yellow from a 2% immersion bath of Marigold (Ambrosia).
Tops 5 - this is a baby alpaca and bleached tussah silk top painted with Madder (Indus) and Myrobalan (Kango) .
Hank 4 - painted with Madder (Indus), Myrobalan (Kango) and Rhubarb Root (Desert).
Tops 6 - painted with Annatto and Red Lac.

In the afternoon I tutored a Design for the Terrified Master Class. Altogether a very enjoyable day!

Using Pure Tinctoria Dyes in Paper Making

2009-02-22T03:31:00.000-08:00

Jane Deane, a very accomplished dyer, has emailed this image to me. It's a collage of an Ichthyosaur, that was included in the design work for a piece of art as a book in Traces at Walford Mill gallery, Wimborne, Dorset, but it has been "re-commissioned" in its own right for an exhibition in September, based on the Jurassic Coast and called Stone, Paper, Scissors.

She used Pure Tinctoria's cutch (Thar) to dye the paper pulp with a varigated effect. Here's how she did it:

For a varigated effect to the paper, just dissolved the dye in water as you would do normally and stirred it into the pulp.

For a more even colour, mix the dye colour in the water for the paper vat, before you add the pulp.

I think it's really beautiful!

Seasons Greetings

2008-12-18T12:15:00.000-08:00

While holidaying in Scotland for a few days in November, we woke one morning to this wonderful scene. The light on Loch Rannoch was just amazing and I shot quite a few images which I want to develop into window and wall panels in the New Year.

International Year of Natural Fibres!

2008-11-24T03:25:00.001-08:00

Next year, 2009, is International Year of Natural Fibres (IYNF) and the aims of the Farming and Agriculture Organisation of the United Nations is:

To raise awareness of natural fibres, to promote efficiency and sustainability of the natural fibres, and to foster an effective international partnership among the various natural fibres industries

This is something that is very close to my heart as I try very hard to only use British wool yarns and Irish linen yarns in my work. To me it's really important to promote British and European fibres, not least to support our local producers, but to reduce our carbon footprint, too!

They plan to have a website to promote the year of planned events at www.naturalfibres2009.org, but in the mean time all information can be found at IYNF

Gift Idea No 11! or my brains getting sore!

2008-11-20T06:49:00.000-08:00

Oh, dear, my plan to blog every day with a new gift idea is sadly falling by the wayside. It's not that I can't think of ideas for all your "fibrey friends", it's just that I can't think of any more really exciting ideas.

Well that's not quite true. I've come up with some cracking ideas, but they will take time to put together, and times what I don't have!

We'd love to provide some naturally dyed warps for those weavers who don't like making them themselves, either because they don't have the time or the inclination, but want something that little bit different. I'd love the hear from you, as to whether this is something you'd like to see in the UK. There are a number of companies in the US who sell pre-dyed and made up warps, but we haven't been able to find any here, so I'm commissioning Jane Deane to dyes some for me for the New Year, but that's a month or more away.

In the mean time, those of you who do like dyeing why not treat yourself to the Rivers Collection, which includes 10g Amazon (Annatto), 25g Ganges (Dhak), 25g Indus (Madder), 25g Nile (Natural Indigo), 25g Rhine-M (Red Lac) and 25g Rhine-S (Purple Lac) and all instructions.

This collection is now only £20.50 and represents good value for money for such a lovely collection of colours.

Gift Idea No 10!

2008-11-16T05:22:00.000-08:00

Is your "Fibrey Friend" is a passionate knitter? Do they spin and have lots of scrumptious hand spun yarn? Are they enjoying dyeing beautiful yarns? Is weaving something they want to try, but don't have room for a loom? Want to introduce them so something different?

This is where the Knitters Loom comes into it's own. It's compact and easy to use and you can have a hand woven scarf in 2 hours! Maxine, who lives on a narrow boat, has on, and who knows more about living in a small space than she does?

For £125 you can be weaving beautiful items in next to no time!

Gift Idea No. 9!

2008-11-14T09:37:00.000-08:00

This is a really simple idea, following on from the last post.

For spinners who've never tried natural dye extracts (or even dyeing!), why not buy them one of the substantive dyes that contain tannin. These are Amber-M (Oak Gall), Kango (Myrobalan), Pacific (Pomegranate) and Thar (Cutch). One 25g packet of any one of these dyes will dye 500g of fibres and shouldn't need any other mordant, such as alum and cream of tartar and so can be done in one step:

Weight your fibres in their dry state
Wet them out (if using tops curl them into a bundle and secure end round the bundle then immerse in warm water with a squirt of washing liquid
Weigh up to 5g of dye extract for each 100g of wool yarn.
Dissolve the dye in a small amount of water, heating if necessary to aid the dissolving or add a "grain" of washing soda.
Top up the water so that it will be sufficient to cover your yarn when it's in the pot.
Add your wetted out yarn to the pot.
Slowly bring to a simmer over about 45 minutes.
Simmer for 45 minutes.
Cool in the pot then rinse thoroughly.

For as little as £1.30 for the dye and your fibrey friends own fibre what more could they want!

Gift Idea No. 8

2008-11-14T02:06:00.000-08:00

I know this isn't a dyeing gift idea, but it is a "Fibrey" idea!

Michael Williams, from Sheffield, makes the most wonderful drop spindles, see his website here

Although I haven't tried it, the Akha is supposed to be excellent for spinning cotton, "effortless" was the quote I was given and with his new Support Spindle Bowl this would be a great gift for a spinning expert.

There are lots of other, less expensive ideas on his website, including his drop spindles, diz, nostepinne, lazy kate, niddy noddy, etc.

Gift Idea No. 7!

2008-11-12T08:31:00.001-08:00

Well I suppose I should be running short of ideas now, but looking at the lovely kits we've got on our Pure Tinctoria website, I'm quite excited about them!

For just £11.20 we have a Mini Starter Kit which contains 25g Indus (Madder), 25g Kango (Myrobalan), 25g Nile (Natural Indigo) and 25g Pacific(Pomegranate) and all instructions.

This is a really nice gift for someone starting out with natural dyeing.

Centre Pull Ball Scarves

2008-11-11T11:42:00.000-08:00

If you can remember, I did some indigo dyeing in the summer (when was that!) and at last I've finally found time to photograph my indigo dyed "Centre-Pull Ball" scarves.

I wove them on a rigid heddle (Ashford 30cm Knitters Loom) with 2 "ends" of Blue Faced Leicester chunky wool that was indigo dyed as previously explained and 1 end of indigo dyed curled loop boucle.

The first scarf was woven with the same white BFL chunky yarn as the warp.

The second one was woven with the indigo dyed curled loop boucle.

I'm really pleased with them, I only wish you could feel how soft they are, oh and now I need to weave (or knit) the two "Shibori" hanks I dyed at the same time.

Gift Idea No. 6!

2008-11-11T01:28:00.000-08:00

While we experience these dull grey days we start to think of Spring and Summer next year. I love holidays that allow me to indulge my passion for all things "Textile", so would love nothing more than to spend my time weaving, dyeing, spinning, etc!

Spring and Summer are a long way off, but you could treat someone close (or yourself!) to a week-end break. Skylark Holidays run week-end breaks and 5 day holidays in the heart of the UK, in an unspoilt corner of Derbyshire, at Windlehill Farm. The farm provides a special setting, with a duck pond greeting you as you approach the entrance and its characteristic group of buildings surrounding the farmyard and raised water feature. There has been a high quality restoration, providing meeting rooms, studios and four-star self-catering accommodation.

This friendly, approachable company can put together a gift voucher to suit your needs and budget, so give them a ring on 01283 701729 or email paulhunt@skylarkholidays.co.uk

Gift Idea No. 5!

2008-11-10T02:39:00.000-08:00

Hello again.

I've had some lovely results with my indigo over the summer and you may have seen my centre pull ball and twisted hank experiments. I've woven the two, 100g centre pull balls into lovely large scarves with some indigo dyed boucle. They could be knitted rather than woven if you prefer, but they are really lovely and quite simple to dye using the Jenny Dean "Colour Run Remover" method!

With this in mind why not buy a pack of indigo and a hank of Blue Faced Leicester Chunky Texture Yarn and we'll add the instructions for dyeing with the centre pull balls or twisted hank and throw in a knitting pattern, crochet pattern and weaving instructions for a Knitters Loom (rigid heddle loom), too!

Gift Idea No. 4!

2008-11-08T08:13:00.001-08:00

While I'm on the "Book Theme" how about a gift for a spinner, experienced or new!

Creative Spinning, by me and Jane Deane has proved very popular and has had some great reviews:

"Hi Alison and Jane. It's great, lovely photography and samples." Rosemarie

"The book arrived 3 minutes ago! I've just opened it and it's absolutely beautiful. Just skimming through the pages gave me that "excited" feeling, I can't wait to go through it in more detail. And it's signed by both of you!" Ann

Give a spinning friend or relative that "exited" feeling when they open this on Christmas Day!

It's on special offer at the moment, so at just £10 it's a bargain as well.

Gift Idea No. 3!

2008-11-08T08:05:00.000-08:00

Woops, I missed a post yesterday, so am a day behind!

It's given me a little time to think about what would make a good present. I've always been very partial to books, so thought that Jenny Dean's newest book, Colours from Nature would make a lovely gift.

Colours from Nature describes in full detail how to prepare and use natural dyes on a variety of fibres to produce a wide range of colours, following safe and environmentally-friendly methods. It has a comprehensive recipe section giving instructions for over 100 colours, using both traditional dyes such as cochineal, indigo, madder and weld, and dyes from common plants such as blackberry, rhubarb, oak and walnut, as well as instructions for some natural dye extract.

Jenny has been working with natural dyes for over 30 years and lectures and runs courses and workshops on natural dyeing and has written widely on the subject.

At £13.50 this is a gem of a book and well worth a place on a "Fibre Addicts" book shelf!

Gift Idea No. 2!

2008-11-06T05:30:00.000-08:00

Hi all

Why not introduce your "Fibery" friends to natural dyeing with the Spring Four Kit.

25g each of Ambrosia, Amber-L, Desert-V and Thar-G. From bottom to top in the image:

Ambrosia - marigold - lemon yellow.
Amber-L - lohdra bark - orange to peach.
Desert-V - chaste tree - tans.
Thar-V - cutch waste - olive greens and greys.

All for £7.50!

Christmas Looming!

2008-11-05T02:42:00.000-08:00

I don't want to alarm anybody, but I was informed by the radio this morning that there are only 7 weeks to Christmas!

So, with this in mind, you might like to treat your "Fibrery" friends and relations to some lovely dyes. So here at Pure Tinctoria we've been thinking about what we'd like to receive as gifts and have come up with some ideas for you.

For the next couple of weeks we are going to post 1 gift idea each day, a bit like an advent calendar, but early enough for you to ponder gifts!

Day 1
For your friends who embroider, how about one of the lovely "Opportunity Packs" we had specially dyed by Jane Deane.

The image on the above shows one of these beautifully presented and totally unique packs.

Each Luxury Opportunity Pack has been hand dyed using Pure Tinctoria natural dye extracts and contains:

Fabric - 1 @ 25x25cms of silk noil, silk nuslin, cotton velvet or similar; a minimum of 30m of assorted yarns, silk fibres or wenslydale fleece and one of the following:- silk carrier rod, silk cocoons (3), buttons or similar.

The packs are just £12 each.

Hot News!

2008-10-24T04:39:00.000-07:00

Hi all

I wanted to let you know some exciting news. Five of Pure Tinctoria's natural dye extracts gave been given their Global Organic Textile Standard (GOTS) which is really wonderful and the remaining dyes are due to get their GOTS in the next few months, so keep an eye out for that post, too.

The five dyes are Amazon (Annatto), Amber-M (Oak Gall), Indus (Madder), Kango (Myrobalan) and Thar (Cutch).

We have also been able to reduce the price of Amazon and Indus recently so please got to the Pure Tinctoria website for details.

Dyeing Bowmont Fleece

2008-08-11T05:21:00.000-07:00

I've just had a set of images of the four new dyes, Marigold, Lodhra bark, Chaste Tree and Cutch waste, dyed onto Bowmont fleece.
Lesley Prior of Devon Fine Fibres has used them very successfully on her own Bowmont fleece.

The colours are, from left to right, Lodhra bark (Amber-L), Chaste Tree (Desert-V), Marigold (Ambroisa) and Cutch waste (Thar-G).

When she emailed me with the image she had this to say:

"I used 5% for the Desert but only 4% for the Amber. I think Bowmont
takes it up very well so the proportions for at least some of the dyes
could be reduced slightly depending on the effect you want of course.
Looking forward to using the other two!!!"

She also uses half the suggested quantities of dye on her kid and YG mohair and half to two thirds on her cashmere because it's ecru not white. She feels that two thirds is about right for the Bowmont.

You can read all about her dye session with Pure Tinctoria on her blog.

Brand New Product Launch!

2008-07-15T07:59:00.000-07:00

We are very excited to launch our latest product.

Beautifully packs of luxury fabric, yarns and fibres all hand dyed by Jane Deane. These packs are ideal for creative embroiderers who are looking for that some thing that's different. Visit our website to see the full range.

More Indigo!

2008-07-02T06:12:00.000-07:00

Here are the images of the centre-pull ball dyeing I did in the same indigo vat.

I already had some centre-pull balls wound tightly and only had to "wet them out". I then put a rod (long paint brush) through the centre and allowed the ball to just sit in the vat.

After about 5 minutes I flipped the ball over and let the other side sit in the vat, as you can see in the image on the left.

Here you can see the distinct areas of colour.

Below is onen of the hanks hanging on the line after washing and rinsing.

I did manage to warp two knitters loom with these yarns before I went to Woolfest, but didn't manage to do much weaving while I was there. I did finish the weaving at home on Sunday, by way of a rest! I will post images of those when I manage to find time to photograph them.

Indigo

2008-07-02T01:36:00.000-07:00

Just before I want to Woolfest I tutored a dye workshop. During the course of the week-end we did some indigo dyeing. I love wool, so naturally I had lots of hanks of yarn, including some lovely Blue-faced leicester gimp.

I had some in hanks and some in centre-pull ball, so in a quiet moment I managed to "dunk" them in the indigo vat.

The first ones to go in where the hanks, which I tightly hanked, giving them a really good twist, until I couldn't twist any more. I then gave them a good wetting out, followed by a good squeeze and placed them one at a time in my vat. I pushed them carefully under the surface then allowed the hank to bob back to the surface.

The image on the left shows, clearly, the coppery coloured film of a vat that is in good order.

Carefully removing the hank, catching any drips in a jug, I allowed the hank to oxydise briefly, before unwinding and hanging on the line to fully oxydise. The image on the right shows the hank as I unwound it before hanging on the line.

Here is the hank hanging on the line to dry after washing and rinsing, with a final rinse with a small amount of vinegar in the water.

Student Successes!

2008-06-26T09:28:00.000-07:00

Hi all

I wanted to pass on some great news!

Sarah Egholm from Chelsea College, who has been using Pure Tinctoria dyes in her final project, has been awarded a first class honours degree. Very well done Sarah.

Here is an image of her work, entitled "Five Ecological Windsocks" and an extract from her email:

".......Just wanted to let you know I have just graduated from Chelsea College
of Art Textile Design BA with a First Class Honours degree - and my
final project consisted of fabrics dyed with Pure-Tinctoria, to the
'no-mordant' methods you explained !

I did extensive experimentation with this method and developed two
colours I liked. I intend to do a Masters Degree later in the year and
would like to develop more shades using this method, possibly on a
large scale.

I used two colours in the end - A peach shade that was Annatto,
pre-dyed with Kango. This was then bleached out with large amounts of
lemon juice. For the final project I used something in the region of
16 litres ! The chocolate brown was Golden Dock pre-dyed with
Pomegranate..........

Many Thanks,

Sarah Egholm"

Students using Pure Tinctoria

2008-06-17T02:41:00.000-07:00

Isn't it sad when tutors aren't very far sighted!

I've just had a message from Angelita, who did the lovely fabrics for her final cat walk show at the London College of Fashion, featured in an earlier post.

She has be told by her tutors that she needs to use a greater colour range than she has, so had to re- dye all her fabrics using synthetic dyes. It's such a pity that this student's work has not been recognised as being forward thinking. Especially in the light of the fact that at the last Trend Forecast that I went to said one of the up and coming trends was for soft, chalky shades, just like Angelina's!!

A fabulous scarf

2008-05-07T03:57:00.000-07:00

Hi all

Jane Deane is an adult tutor and one of the subjects she teaches is natural dyeing. She has been using the dyes at her evening class in Devon.

This fabulous silk scarf was dyed by one of Jane's student (adult learners!), Sue Golding-Cooke and was photographed for us by Welmoed Perrin.

The reddy/purple is a mix of madder and purple lac and the green is cutch waste.

I'm sure you'll agree that it is truly gorgeous!

News!

2008-05-01T02:08:00.000-07:00

Pure Tinctoria has four new dyes for the Spring! Cutch Waste, Chaste Tree, Lodhra Bark and Marigold. We have put them in a pack for the spring with a £1 discount until the end of June.

This picture doesn't do the colours justice! The cutch waste is a lovely colour, giving a fabulous olive green or grey, depending on your water's ph, and the marigold is a lovely lemon yellow.

We will be at Woolfest again this year so come and look us up and see the discounts that we will have for you, including the above "Spring Four" pack.

We look forward to meeting you there.

Students using Pure Tinctoria Dyes

2008-03-08T05:12:00.000-08:00

I've just had an email from Angelita Codoni, a student at London College of Fashion, who has just had her Critique for her final project. She has used Pure Tinctoria dyes and has sent this image

The fabrics look very beautiful and although she, and her fellow students, were very limited with the stuff they could show, she thinks she made the most of showing the beautiful results of the dyes. They are so vibrant in their own way.

The lustre fabric (her favourite, so beautiful) is hemp/silk and the mat fabric is bamboo jersey.

I would love to see the garments when they are finished and on the cat walk!

A day of dyeing

2008-03-07T09:37:00.000-08:00

I've just had a really good day dyeing Annie Sherburnes lovely recycled singles yarn. I am planning to weave a wall panel for an exhibition and used Rhine-M (Red Lac) and Kango (Myrobalan).

Rhine-M (red lac) Kango (myrobalan)

The design I will use is from my Anthurium Collection which can be seen at www.alisonyuletextiles.co.uk