...better than I do for sure what kind of berry bush this might be? The closest identification I can seem to feel rather confident in from online photos would be the Oregon Grape.
And further, if in fact it is Oregon Grape, the fruit is supposed to be able to be used for making a natural lavendar/purple dye and the inner bark and roots supposedly makes a bright yellow dye. If I'm accurate in ID it will be a race to get the 'fruit' before birds descend upon it. I've never been aware of this bush producing fruit before (in fact, had Dearest Darlin' cut the entire bush down 3 years or so ago to where I thought/hoped the big wide-spread thing would NOT recover to block my lake view).
It's really pretty amusing that when your soul kicks into a particular gear there can utterly be NO END to ideas and inspirations flying at you! Now my wild, creative heart is curious what it would be like to make natural dye and CREATE totally one of a kind fabric to PLAY with. I've absolutely never been even curious about dying my own fabric before! But, I would also very much appreciate references to any blogs or websites known to you of anyone who gives tips/instruction/advice for making natural dyes from plants. Are there supply lists, etc? Thanks much in advance for sharing any info you might have.
4 comments:
Too bad this book won't be out until January...
http://www.storey.com/prebook_detail.php?isbn=9781603424684&cat=PreRelease
Oh, gee - I hadn't even THOUGHT yet of dying YARN! tee hee...and I have a neighbor who has a couple llamas, but then I'd have to learn how to spin too. But I think somewhere in the studio - when everything's been tackled - there is a small box of raw wool sent to me from someone in Montana some time ago. Hmmmmm.
Looks like a good book - thanks for the reference, m.
Hi there- you can read more about natural dyes here, http://cathycullis.blogspot.com/
AND
http://thenaturalsurface.blogspot.com/
These ladies have lots to share. Have fun!
I can't help with the identification. I'm never any good at that sort of thing. I wish you luck though. I'd love to see what you come up with if you do dye some fabric or yarn.
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