New Embroidery Group

Back in the late 1980’s I was introduced to the art of dyeing wool using natural dyes.  I remember collecting nettles, gorse flowers, bracken and boiling them to extract the dye, then using the resulting colours to dye the wool.  What lovely subtle shades were produced, unlike today’s chemical dyes which can appear harsh and crude.  Needless to say I didn’t carry on with the technique, due work constraints and C & G commitments.

When I learnt that Joan Braganza (FLEWS group and co-ordinator of Region 3 IFA) had invited Victoria Vijayakumar from Aranya Natural, Kerala in India to come to England and run a couple of courses in Natural Dyeing, I thought it was too good an opportunity to miss.

I have just spent 5 days immersed in the technique of dyeing silk, using many of the natural dyes that originate from India.  Victoria, who supervises at Aranya Natural, was a brilliant teacher who explained every process in a very professional way, starting with an overview each day of what we were going to do.  This was followed by detailed instructions of the processes involved and then onto the exciting bit of a demonstration so that we could then have a go ourselves.

The room soon became a witches cauldron as pans of water boiled and bubbled, steam rising in the air.  Morning and afternoon saw different dyes being extracted from Indian Madder, Acacia, Pomegranate, Eucalyptus leaves (which did my cold the power of good), Marigold flowers with Turmeric and Tea waste (after all they do grow a lot of tea in India).

The processes involved wetting out the silk in a bucket of water before transferring it to the mordant.  The mordant allows the dye to ‘stick’ to the fibre and at the same time make it colourfast.  Four different mordants were used – Alum, Copper Sulphate, Ferrous Sulphate (Iron) and Potassium Dichromate (used very very sparingly as toxic and possibly harmful to the skin).  Each mordant affected each dye in a different way, producing either a different tone or shade and this was shown very clearly on a sample sheet that Victoria had provided us with.

After soaking in the mordant the silk was then transferred to the dye bucket and we watched excitedly as the fabric gradually changed colour, the longer the fabric was left in the dye, the more intense the colour.  Occasionally the fabric was transferred between the mordant and then back into the dye bath.  We continuously watched the clock, timing each immersion until it was time to rinse the fabric and then let it dry.  After drying and leaving for about 24 hours the fabric could then be thoroughly washed using pure soap before drying and ironing.  

As well as dyeing the silk a plain colour to start with we also began to experiment with various over-dyeing techniques such as tie dyeing, shibori, knotting and other methods of resist dyeing.  The results were amazing and we drooled over the myriad of scarves that Victoria had brought along for us to see, using all the different techniques. 

After 5 days of intensive work (and fun) it was time to admire our own efforts – it was worth it!.