Botanical Printing, Eco Printing, Botanical Dyeing, Eco Dyeing, Botanical Inks – just some of the terms being used to describe this increasingly popular and exciting approach to transferring plant colours and patterns onto fabric and paper. The varying methods use leaf and flower cuttings to extract colour and ghost-like images of the foliage. What is […]
Category Archives: Dyes & Dyeing
25
Sep
Sep
Here is a first attempt at creating a Botanical Print with petals gathered from around the garden (you can find further information about this technique from our Blog post Botanical Printing – an overview). It is difficult to get a clearly defined print with petals as the colours tend to bleed into the fabric. A […]
27
Jul
Jul
Ice dyeing is a technique for creating random patterning on fabrics (or fibres and yarns!). The dyeing method below uses Procion MX dyes on cotton fabric. Here is how Cara created her one-of-a-kind ice dyed cushion covers for her garden. Preparing the fabric for ice dyeing You will need to use linen, viscose or […]
30
Mar
Mar
We’re thrilled to have been mentioned in an article by Rachael Dove in The Evening Standard recently. “How to dye your old clothes with Alice Temperley” shares how to bring new life to discarded garments – using Fibrecrafts Natural Dyes! Award winning British designer Alice Temperley MBE, explains how she uses Madder, Cochineal and Logwood […]
30
Mar
Mar
In Batik, melted wax is applied to fabric to act as a resist to dye or paint. The wax is applied using a carved wooden block or stamp, or free hand with a tjanting or brush. When the wax has hardened, the fabric is either submerged in a dye bath or painted with the dye. […]
07
Nov
Nov
Customer Yvonne Appleby has very kindly sent us some photographs of her Eco Prints on watercolour paper. Ash Leaves “My first attempt at eco printing was, to my great satisfaction and no small surprise, a success. The leaves used were Sweet Chestnut, Ash, Wych Elm, Ivy, Cotoneaster, Yarrow, Bracken and Tansy.” Yvonne used the following […]
10
Oct
Oct
George Weil has sold litres and litres of H Dupont Classique Silk Dyes to customers over the decades. These liquid dyes are used with protein fibres such as silk, wool, feathers, mohair and cashmere, and are more popularly used by silk painters. A Beginner’s Silk Painting using H Dupont Classique Our colleague Cara created this […]
08
Oct
Oct
The silk painters’ favourite, H Dupont Classique dyes, provide bright and clear colour results on silk fabric. Although the iron fix silk paints offer a fair alternative, they do leave the fabric a little stiffer than a dye. This stiffness effects the drape of the fabric while dyes retain the fluidity. Our image shows silk […]
25
Sep
Sep
If you are curious about indigo dyeing this blog post may encourage you to have a go! Here we take you through the stages of preparing the indigo dye vat and dyeing your first items with this magical, ancient dye. Dip you fabric, fibre or yarn, lift it into the air and watch as the […]
15
Nov
Nov
Have you ever been disappointed by the results of the washing machine dyes you find at the supermarket? The zip or the stitching didn’t take the dye colour? This is why it is important to know the fibre content and which dyes to use to get an even colour which stays wash fast. Here we […]