December

The last dye day of our year-long project

Four of us gathered to see what colours we would obtain on this dark December day!  We had birch bark, ginkgo biloba bark and privet, all of which had been soaked for at least 2 weeks and simmered for a couple of hours.  The birch bark had been heated and left to cool before being heated again.

The privet was chopped up with secateurs and the birch and ginko bark stripped with a knife:

The birch bark produced quite pale but pretty pink colours - apricot pink without any modification, slightly more pink with washing soda - except the grey which was the result of the iron modifier.  The ginkgo was fairly nondescript and probably not worth trying again and the privet produced good strong golds, yellows and greens

We will be overdyeing one skein from each dye bath with woad (blue) and one with madder (red), which will add to the range of colour, and one skein of each is being tested for light-fastness.

All the results of our experiments will be displayed at an exhibition in the Coach House Gallery, Winterbourne House and Garden 1-25 April 2016
where we also hope to have spinning wheels and a tapestry weaving loom set up for people to try.