Learning Natural Plant Dyeing At The Cambridge Historical Society, With Susannah and Stephanie

Susannah’s joy was infectious as the pulled the wool roving from the dye bath.  She and Stephanie  were teaching the workshop on dyeing with natural plants at the Cambridge Historical Society on Saturday.

We learned that most plants, no matter their color, will make a dye that is a variation of  yellows, tans, and browns.  Indigo makes blue and a few plants such as Brazilwood, Madder and Woad make a red dye.

Stephanie had two jars of Indigo dye.  There was a good crowd at the demonstration and each one of us accordion folded a cotton hankie then wrapped the ends with rubber bands.  Stephanie was teaching the Japanese dyeing technique of Shibori.

I brought some of the white hankies, that so many of you have given me over the years, and dyed them with Indigo.  I had to boil them in water and Dawn dish soap to remove  the dirt and starch from the before dying.  

Preparing the linen and cotton this way is called Mordanting.  It’s usually done with alum and or cream of tarter, but for my purposes the Dawn worked fine.

The hankie on the left was drying on the line for about 15 minutes after being dyed with Indigo.  The one on the right is the same hankie  in the photo above this one.  You can see how it is changing color.   We dyed the hankies three times.

To set the dye I still need to  wash the hankies in Ivory soap and hot water, again and again until  the dye stops leaching out of the fabric.

Stephanie also dyed some roving using marigold flowers.  I loved the color and have lots of marigolds in the garden this year.  They are actually one of the few flowers that did really well.

There was a lot of information through out the day including the history of dying and fibers, I’ve only touched on the smallest bit of it.  At one point I was standing next to my friend Ute and looked at her and said, “There’s not fucking way I’m going to be able to do this.”

But at the end of the day, I felt like I had grasped some of the the basic information and having had some practical experience,  I thought I might try dyeing some of my linens with marigolds.

When I first heard that there was going to be a Natural plant dyeing demonstration I wasn’t planning on going.  I was feeling that I have enough going on and adding plant dyeing, which takes years and years to learn to do properly, seemed like too much to take on.

But working with  Susannah and Stephanie on the Community Weaving Project made made me curious about dyeing.  They are also both good and generous teachers and when Stephanie offered to let me dye some of my hankies, I could hardly resist.  I wanted to see what they would look like using natural Indigo dye.

Now I’m so glad I went.  Not only did I learn a lot and think I might try some natural plant dyeing on my own (or even better with my friend Ute), but I met a  lot of nice people and  it was just an enjoyable afternoon.