Magic Dyeing

Our meeting this month was organised as a members’ day with the
focus on ‘magic’ dyeing led by Meryl Phillips.

Meryl explained that the procion MX dyes could be stored in
diluted form but would only remain active for a few hours once
the fixing solutions of salt and soda ash were added. Only
three primary dye colours were needed and they would progress
through the fabric at different rates, the turquoise fastest, the
gold medium and the red very slowly.

Squares of cotton fabric were concertina folded in a variety of
ways. They might be folded into squares, rectangles, triangles or
scrunched and twisted in different ways. The parcel of fabric
was secured with elastic bands before the dye was dripped on
randomly from a teaspoon. The results did not look promising at
this stage! ‘Parcels’ were then placed in plastic bags and left for
24 hours before rinsing in cold water.

Members who did not wish to join in with the focus on the day were
free to follow their own projects.

Natural Dyeing

The speaker at our September meeting was Helen Melvin (Fiery Felts) who spoke on natural dyeing. Beginning with her own early recollections of squeezing colour from crepe paper she enthralled us with the history of dyeing: from the earliest recognizable ‘dyed’ fragments from 30,000 years ago thought to be earth colours rubbed onto fabric, Queen Elizabeth the First’s remarks about ‘nasty, pernicious dye’ following poor attempts at a black to ‘modern’ colours from the other side of the world using eucalyptus.

Helen showed us vibrant examples of yarn and fabric dyed from plants in her garden which included coreopsis, cosmos, indigo, dyer’s chamomile and many others. Examples of a variety of techniques for dyeing fabrics such as silk were discussed. Sun dyeing in kilner jars, fabric rolled up with coins, rusty nails or different flower heads even burying fabric in the compost heap were among several exciting possibilities.

Helen makes wonderful landscapes of North Wales from dyed felt embellished with stitching and textiles. She displayed some of her work and sketchbooks.

New, this year, to the National Garden Scheme of gardens open for Charity Helen’s dye garden may be visited by groups. Contact Helen for details of the garden and dyeing courses at helenmelvin@fieryfelts.co.uk or find other gardens in the area through www.ngs.org.uk (North East Wales) Blaen Wern, Bodfari, Denbighshire, LL16 4BT

If you are in the ITV Wales area you may have seen Helen’s garden on ‘ Little Pieces of Paradise’ or the BBC children’s science programme ‘Nina and the Neurons’.