This post is part of the UK Herbarium blog party Gems from the Herbal Library.
When I was young, like many of that age I loved dyeing clothing. There was a magic in the transformation of an old favourite or a new opshop find simply by immersing it in coloured water. As a teen I used Dylon dyes, bought in wee metal containers from the supermarket or chemist. They were easy to use, affordable and perfect for teenage experiments. I remember the excitement when we discovered Dygon, the chemical that stripped existing colour from most cloth so it could be redyed in the colour of our choice. In my early twenties I moved on to procion dyes and screen printing, both giving me a much wider range of things to experiment and play with.
Somewhere in all that I remember collecting dandelions from the lawn of one memorable flat – the lawn was completely covered in brilliant yellow blossoms and I was sure there must be a way to get that brilliance into cloth. I don’t remember the technique I used, but the results were disappointing. The reading I did at the the time and the people I consulted all seemed to be saying that wool was relatively easy to dye, but cotton wasn’t, and either still needed chemicals of varying degrees of toxicity to make the dye take. I was already finding the procion dyes and screen printing chemicals came with impacts on human health and then when it dawned on me that those dyebaths and cleanup chemicals we were pouring down the drain at the end of the day had to actually go somewhere… well it was easiest to just stop. Occasionally I would read up some more on using plants to dye with, but it still seemed that overly toxic chemicals were needed and I could never reconcile that with the idea that people have made beautiful clothing for eons before we had those chemicals.
So it’s been my utter delight to discover the work of India Flint and other natural dye artists. Flint is an Australasian* fibre artist who has been working with plant dyes for twenty years, building up an impressive body of knowledge on what works and what we can experiment and play with successfully. What makes her work so exciting is the low level of toxicity of the substances she uses (many can be found in the kitchen), and her ecological sensibility – we can have beautiful fabric and clothing without damaging the land.
*Born and living in Australia but has connections into NZ and a deep understanding of the land here.
Flint has pioneered ‘eco-printing‘ on fabrics (using plants), and has specialised in the dye properties of many of Australia’s eucalypts (animal fibres will take eucalypt dyes without the need for any mordant).
The book Eco Colour is both a showcase of natural dyeing and an instructive on how to. A large format book, it’s is beautifully presented, with copious colour photos. These include examples of Flint’s work, the plants and the processes.
Flint has a clear communication of the problems with chemical dying – from the effect of what goes down the drain, to the impact on the dyer, and the impact on the wearer of having chemicals next to our skins (I can still sometimes pick the smell of dygon-like chemicals on commercial clothing that has obviously been through a predying process, especially wool).
I also love her ecological sensibility. On the issue of colourfastness, where commercial dyes are meant to last years and so strong, very toxic chemicals are used to achieve this, she advises that if naturally dyed cloth fades, you can simply re-dye it. For those of us that love simplicity and the magic of the dying process this is perfect.
Perhaps closest to my heart is the concept of bioregionalism. I’m a bioregional herbalist (I believe that most of our medicine can come from where we live) and Flint focusses on dying with the plants that grow around her. It’s hard to describe the importance of this sometimes, but on an obvious, practical, post-peak oil level the skill to create beauty from our landbase is invaluable.
More than that though, bioregionalism takes us into such a direct relationship with the land that it becomes impossible to not see the connections between the land, ourselves and how we treat the world. Flint’s work demonstrates and reflects that relationship, for which I am profoundly grateful. It’s not just the ability to craft fabric without excessive chemical use, it’s that the craft, the art and the play are taken back to their natural source in the land, and so are we.
In more practical terms Flint outlines many techniques: how to prepare dyes, the various mordants and what they can be used on, how time affects the process, the plants themselves and the colours they yield, health and safety (natural dyes and mordants need careful handling too), how the metal of the dyepot or resist can change colour etc. This is probably not the best book for an absolute beginner – it helps to know what a mordant is for instance, and basic dyeing techniques. Flint does explain each concept and technique as she goes, but she doesn’t give actual recipes. Natural dyes can be used by beginners more easily than harsh chemical dyes, so Eco Colour would sit well alongside a basic dyeing primer for those not used to the techniques (try the internet or library).
Many of the substances used in natural dyeing can be found at home or in the supermarket – soda, vinegar, milk – and Flint explains how these can be disposed of at the end of the dye-ing process. She also introduces the basic chemistries involved.
Although she has done extensive work with the native eucalypts, most of the plants in the book are common in many parts of the world. Further, the techniques are imminently transferable to any plant. I’m already eye-ing up plants in my neighbourhood wondering what dye would result.
There is an abundance of techniques to try out, ranging from the simple and known ordinary dye baths to the intriguing (ice dyeing) and the even more intriguing (compost dyeing). Flint intersperses the book with historical accounts, both from her own life and family traditions, her natural dyeing antecedents, and general plant dyeing background.
There are many things here to delight the herbalist. Flint talks about how plants high in alkaloids can be used as mordants and notes that many medicinal herbs will be useful in dyeing because of this. Tannin rich plants is the other obvious one.
I should point out that I’m not an artist. I have some craft skills but my experiments with plant dyes are mostly for practical purposes – how to transform the colour and look of fibre and cloth in ecologically sensitive ways, so that I can use them in my own life. While Flint is an artist and the book is for the artist’s eye, the techniques in the book are adaptable for more mundane projects too.
India Flint has a blog, and there are links there to other natural dyers the world over. Eco Colour is available from many online booksellers, and in NZ it’s also available in libraries (by interloan if your local doesn’t have it). Amazon in the UK has a Look Inside! preview that doesn’t do justice to the visual splendour of the book but does show the contents, index and introduction. Flint also travels extensively giving workshops.
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February 20, 2011 at 9:15 pm
Sandra
Oh Lusach I LOVE this!! So beautiful and quite inspirational. I’d love to read follow up posts from you on your local experiments. I’ve had a wee look at her blog and she even loves the Coast. I’m interested in her experiencesplaying with harakeke…
February 20, 2011 at 11:57 pm
Lucinda
This is so interesting Lusach. I have never attempting herbal dyes before though I always find it interesting when the old herbals refer to the different plants that were used in this way. I did a workshop a year or so ago about using natural pigments and other ingredients to make paints but I didn’t really follow on with it afterwards. You are inspiring me to get experimenting again!
Thanks for a lovely post,
Love Lucinda x
February 21, 2011 at 9:48 am
Danielle Charles
Lusach,
Truly fascinating! I have always been curious about natural dyes and pigments, but I’ve never had a chance to really explore their feasability. Thinking of the health and environmental impact of commercial dyes used for most of my clothing and yarn (something I sadly haven’t pondered much before) makes me really eager to start thinking about this age old craft. Do you have a good beginner’s book you’d recommend? India Flint’s book looks gorgeous as well as informative. Thanks for this great post! Truly a unique gem for the herbal library :)
XOXO D
February 21, 2011 at 9:52 am
Chris
I managed to get this book on sale about three years ago, and was absolutely fascinated by it – I’m not a crafty person – someone with strong interest in fabric arts though – but I could see myself trying out botanical dyeing.
Which I did. The first result was well, interesting. Brown rather than the purple I wanted. I’ll have to get back into it as I constantly find myself mentally noting the location of various eucalypts around town.
February 21, 2011 at 12:23 pm
Gems from the Herbal Library « The Teacup Chronicles
[…] Lusach over at Wild*Crafty took a different angle on the theme, and wrote a an in depth and beautifully written book review on Eco Colour, a book on dying with natural plant pigments written by natural dye artist India Flint. As Lusach says, “When I was young, like many of that age I loved dyeing clothing. There was a magic in the transformation of an old favourite or a new opshop find simply by immersing it in coloured water.” As she grew older and learned of the environmental and health consequences of many common dyes, she yearned to learn how to use the natural dyes that our ancestors once used to color their clothing. She found just what she was looking for in India Flint’s beautiful masterpiece – a book that satisfies Lusach’s passions for low impact and bioregional living. Read her inspiring account of this book here. […]
February 21, 2011 at 2:10 pm
Brigitte
Absolutely love LOVE this post!
The vibrant lively colours make me longing to dye in a natural way!
I always loved leaf prints and I don’t know why I stopped to be artistic…
You have rekindled my passion and I’m looking forward to a fabulous book :-)
Thanks Lus!
February 22, 2011 at 12:35 am
lyonesse2710
Ok this book is most definitely going on my shopping list as I wanted to start dabbling in natural plant dyes this year as a possible sideline for my business! The pictures you added make me just itch to roll up my sleeves and have a go – so I’m now going to trot over to Amazon and see if I can track this book down… :D
February 22, 2011 at 10:54 am
lusach
So glad you’ve all enjoyed this! Maybe in a years time we could have a dyeing blog party ;-)
Danielle, I can’t recommend a beginners book sorry, but try your local library. I used this link http://www.pioneerthinking.com/naturaldyes.html too. One thing I would say is to take some care with the set up. Use good ventilation (eg elderberry with stalks on is pretty intense boiling for an hour), and get some pots etc specifically for dyeing so you can keep it quite separate from cooking and food.
Sandra, yes, the harakeke, and the seaweed! Also, tanekaha/toatoa is a well known NZ dye in the past, and I’m sure there is much to explore in our indigenous plants. Of the local weeds so far, I did some elderberry longjohns (a dusky purple), and some cotton t-shirt material in st john’s wort – a failure so far, I think because I used the whole plant rather than just the flowers. I’ll do a post if I get enough interesting examples (time is the limiting factor at the moment).
Lucinda, would love to hear sometime about the natural pigments. I’ve been looking into paints a bit but haven’t got far with the pigments yet. Was the workshop on art paints or home decorating paints?
March 20, 2011 at 9:55 pm
indiana
thank you for the kind mention…and Danielle, i’d suggest [at the risk of blowing my own trumpet] that Eco Colour might indeed be useful for beginners..as it avoids the all-too common use of synthetic mordants.
good luck all round
and happy dyeing
india
March 21, 2011 at 12:36 am
lusach
Thanks india :-)