Wonderwool Wales 2

During this years show I did a number of demonstrations on dyeing with extracts using the "All-in-One" dyeing method.

The first demo on each day was painting tops and hanks and could also be used on warps.  On Saturday I "painted" two 50g bumps of Blue Face Leicester tops and one 100g hank of Blue Faced Leicester lace weight yarn with Lodhra Bark and Kamala.

On Saturday afternoon I used the "All-in-One" method to dye two centre-pull balls with Red Lac and Dhak.  The first one was a two bath dyed ball and the second was an injection ball.

Left: Two Baths  Right: Injection Dyed

Left: Two Baths  Right: Injection Dyed

How the hanks look!

Sunday mornings tops and hank were painted with Cutch and Cutch Waste.

In the afternoon the centre-pull balls were dyed with Chaste Tree and Madder.

Left: Two baths  Right: Injection dyed

Left: Two baths  Right: Injection dyed

The yarn was purchased from Yarnundyed is beautifully soft and has a lovely sheen.  I'm really thrilled with the results.

Learn your ABC with a Dyer!

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?

How to Dye Wood

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.

Woolfest 2010

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.

A Felt Maker and Spinner uses Pure Tinctoria

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

Gift Idea No. 9!

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. 2!

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!

A fabulous scarf

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!

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.