Seems like a time to show some natural dye work as summer ends and autumn walks are highlighted with the pops of colour from berries, the ripening seeds, and the first glimpses of turning colour on trees. I tend to make dye baths in the spring and summer times, often starting with dandelion solar jars.
This year I just couldn’t take a buddleia in bloom as I felt the bees and butterflies and all pollinators needed every blossom. Golden rod I simply stood watching as it was such an attraction. And now the pink sedums and the ivy flowers are teeming with bees – the ivy sounds alive with vibration. A few buddleia blooms, with their colour fading, came down with a wall repair in the garden, and I collected some more whose flowers were spent. They yielded the richest colour and a sweet heady scent
This dye bath was warmed just to simmering point and then left to cool overnight
Out to dry in the breeze and even when dry it retains the scent in it’s folds
Linen scraps pieced together – dyed from the exhaust buddleia bath and some more dyed with tea. Pieces and patches of experiments which have led me to take out the bag of little offcuts from the quilt work I am making as part of an exhibition next year. It is the process of these small and often unexpected explorations that I enjoy so much.
I made a field recording of chattering sparrows in the hedge this week and looked at a sky where the last pictures I took of swallows and house martins were 10 days ago now and I wish them safe migration
The equinox is this coming week
susibancroft 
One thought on “into the cloth…”
Comments are closed.