The Horticolourist

Sadly, I have absolutely nothing to show for August - real life has taken over.   I have been making plans though and have signed the paperwork to drop my days at work from November and am hoping to spend one day a week making and using my plant dyes.  I have ordered some silk scarves online - which took forever to arrive, so I need to have a standing order set up for those each month so I never run out.  I need to prep this fabric ready for colouring - and I now have some alum ready to do so.  I also have a set of digital scales - received for my birthday from my sister - as the quantities I need of the mordants are so small that normal kitchen scales just wouldn't be precise enough.   I'm actually going on holiday in a fortnight for four weeks, so have taken the decision that other things need to take priority before I go - shopping, packing, planning, etc - which means that plant dyes unfortunately have to take a back seat until mid October at the very ea...

July has mainly been about more studies and research into plant dyes - I have had another go at dyeing the cotton scarves I had, but the colour still isn't coming out too well.  I visited a dyeing event recently where the craft ladies doing the demonstrating all use acid and synthetic dyes, rather than natural plant dyes.   And they told me in no uncertain terms that plant dyes are more difficult to use, which sort of makes me more determined to crack it! I have discovered however that animal products are easier than plant products to take dye, so I've ordered some silk scarves which arrived the day before I went on holiday.  So I'm going to have another go with the silk scarves and try again with the cotton ones at a later date.   The beauty is that I can dye and re-dye so nothing is ever wasted. These are my attempts with Curcuma longa (turmeric) and Coffea arabica (coffee).   It's coming along, although very slowly, but we'll get there. ...

Things are beginning to take shape now, mainly lots of notes being made, lots of books being read and experiments being undertaken.  I sowed some seeds of Isatis Tinctoria (woad) and had some lovely little plants until Finn decided to dig them all up once I'd potted them on. Luckily I have another 250 seeds left!   It's too late to sow another lot this year, but I can at least get them in early for next year and, if I decide that I need a blue colour, I will have to buy some dried material or try and find something else to give a similar colour.  And next year I will make sure the pots are kept out of harm's way from Finn. I've been researching all the kit that I will need and have made a start on getting some of it in, and making lists of everything else that I need. And I've started brewing it all up and experimenting with different plant stuff including Vaccinium myrtillus (blueberry) and Curcuma longa (turmeric), and timings espec...

I am currently hurtling headlong to the end of my studies - the three years that I was really worried about committing to (albeit crammed into two years to make life even more difficult!) will soon be over within the next month.  I still have two more exams to take and a whole bunch of assessments, but if previous exams are anything to go by - I have passed all six so far, one with a commendation from the RHS - then potentially I will have the responsibility of a qualification that I need to do something with.   I don't want it all to go to waste and I certainly don't want life to carry on as before. I've been carrying out garden maintenance jobs over the past year and a bit and have loved it, but I was surprised that the work does seem to stop suddenly from the end of October, with no new work picked up in the intervening months until March.   This does strike me as a bit odd as we all work in our own gardens in those winter months, even if we are just tidying up and p...