Our yarns have been prepared with a mordant bath. Next, you should “bundle” your yarn. About 30 wraps around a chair or your arm, and tie the bundle with a string at two ends to keep the yarn from becoming a tangled mess in the dye bath. I keep a recipe/journal […]
Before we can dye the yarn, it must be prepared to accept the dye. So let’s talk about mordants. A “mordant” is typically an inorganic oxide that combines with a dye to “fix it to the fibers’. This is to acheive the most durable and long lasting colors, which will otherwise […]
Now that you’ve hand spun your own yarn, or purchased natural, undyed wool, cotton, or silk yarn, the next step in our process is to DYE it. The Navajo weavers would gather their plant material in the early morning, “The Holy People taught us that there is wisdom and beauty in […]
There’s an old Navajo saying, “Every thread tells a story.” So where does your story begin? All the stories of your past are woven together to create who you are today. With a personal “intention” set as your path to possibilities, we will reconnect with nature through a hike and treasure hunt, use natural materials […]
Another successful day of experimental natural dyeing. This time I was able to focus on the dying materials I wanted to use and collected from my yard, and play with the possible colors. Went through the same preparations of the yarns and silk samples as before; bundle, wash, dry, and mordant the fibers. Then I […]
Natural dyeing is a multi-step process, and one that needs to go rather smoothly if the best results are to be obtained. So yesterday I set out for a “trial run” using a product I found at a craft store. These were tea bags (tea and coffee make a nice tan-brown natural dye too), with […]
I am so excited and full of curious anticipation to start my “kitchen scraps” dyeing. I can already imagine the possibilities when using the fibers together with my ceramic pots. I’ve prepared two skeins of wool yarn by washing any residues out with a warm water and dish soap bath. As you can see, they […]
I had the amazing opportunity to take a one day workshop in San Diego with weekend with fiber artist Brecia Kralovic-Logan. I’ve always enjoyed weaving, either baskets or on a loom, and have wanted to delve further into the craft. And I’ve dabbled in dyeing while teaching and for my own creations. So […]