Growing, Gathering, and Dyeing with Plants: Sunday, September 23rd 2018

Hello! Hope everyone is doing well. It has been a busy year for me and AVFKW. We just harvested loads of dye plants for research for our new book, coming out October 2020! More info to come.


In the mean time I will be teaching one our most popular classes at A Verb for Keeping Warm. It is a great way to kick start your interest in dyeing with plants. I hope to see you there!

xox - adrienne

Growing, Gathering, and Dyeing with Plants: Sunday, September 23rd 2018

Instructor: Adrienne Rodriguez

Explore which types of plants you can grow and gather locally that can be used in the natural dyeing process.  Now is your chance to become part of an ancient tradition!
This class will prepare you for natural dyeing on four different protein (animal) fibers.
In this class, you will learn:

- How to create a dye garden, what plants to grow and how many
- How to use whole plants to create a wide variety of color
- How to harvest, forage and store plants for dyeing
- Yarn and fiber preparation which will include helpful tips for a successful end product with emphasis on colorfastness
- Mordanting with alum for protein fibers (these are fibers that come from animals) to achieve colorfast results
- Extraction of color from plants for dyeing
- Techniques for dyeing yarn samples
- Resources for continued learning
Leave class with a color card representing 10 locally sourced plant dyes on 4 different fiber types to amount to 40 samples of colorful naturally dyed yarn samples!
No experience required! Kids welcome (aged 9+ years old)

Materials included: yarn samples, color card, various locally sourced dye plants
Optional Materials to bring: rubber gloves and apron

NOTE:  Class is held on our outside patio.  Please dress for comfort, crafting, and weather conditions, bring sunscreen!
1 session / 3.5 hours
Cost: $125 with 24 hour advance reservation / $135 walk-in
Class Size:  15 students max.
Date: Sunday, September 23rd
Time: 1:00 pm - 4:30 pm

CLICK HERE TO SIGN UP!

Adrienne works at AVFKW as a dye technician, maintains the AVFKW dye garden, and has helped build the store from the very beginning. She is the daughter of horticulturist and the granddaughter of a farmer. With the encouragement of her mother and father she planted her first garden at the age of 8 years old. Adrienne is also an avid mushroom hunter and dyer.  Taking care of the Verb dye garden and planning what to plant each year is one of Adrienne’s favorite parts of her job, she can’t wait to share the garden and her tips and tricks with you!

Natural Dyeing with Weld (Reseda luteola)

Hope all of you are doing well.  I have had some ups and downs lately. But mostly ups. I want to focus on the garden because it is what makes me happy. I think gardening can be very therapeutic. After I take time to weed in the sun it always seems I'm in such a better mood. So if you can, I suggest at least once a week getting out there and touching the soil. The plants can process all of that negative energy and give you back good. At least that is what I have heard.

What is growing in my garden you ask? Well, I will tell you!  Right now the Weld (Reseda luteola) is going nuts. It is growing taller than me (as in 6 feet high!). The weld is a historic dye plant that gives a VIBRANT yellow. It is actually very close to fluorescent yellow. I love growing it. At first I had a lot of problems and then one day a seed germinated and burst into an amazing flowering plant in the first year. This is unusual, since it is considered a biennial, meaning flowering in the second year it is alive. I think in California it grows a bit differently. We have a very long growing period and can provide as much water as it needs. However, since the tap root is so long, I think it may need less watering!

We are in a historic drought in California, but we have had an epic El Nino season of rain, so that helped tremendously with watering and establishing baby plants. You may not know this but its very difficult to transplant a Weld plant. The tap root is very long and powerful. Disturbing the taproot can cause great ditress and even death if you transplant while it is maturing. I suggest direct seeding it where you want it and not moving it. Make sure the plant is in full sun and has plenty of water in the beginning. I have slowed down in my watering and the plants in my garden are now slow to release flower stalks. However, at the AVFKW store, where I water with waste water, the plants are continuing to flower and are more like a hydra - with many flower stalks shooting every which way!

To dye with Weld, you can use the leaves, flowers, and stalk. From my dye tests the color is most vibrant on a non superwash wool with an alum mordant. It is also great for eco printing. Kristine recently used the leaves on a shirt and the definition was incredible!

I suggest planting the Weld in the ground, but a larger container works great too. I have noticed they can grow in smaller containers but the plant size reflects its area of growth. I have mine in the ground at my house and they grow up to 6 feet high. At the store in the backyard, they grow in a 2 feet deep container and are more bushy than tall, growing to be 4 feet tall but 4 feet wide as well!

Harvest the Weld just as the tiny flowers open up. If you wait too long the stalk becomes more woody and the seeds develop quickly. The seeds are tiny, so you might want to put the seed heads in a paper bag to dry and capture all the seeds. The seeds are as big as poppy seeds on a bagel. The good thing is you'll have seeds for next year. I can cut the Weld back to about 8" and still have more flower stalks develop through the Summer. With this method, you can increase your harvest. I plan to harvest the weld at least three times in the AVFKW dye a garden. So far the plants in my front yard are less resilient to the harvesting. This maybe because of the lack of watering.

Above you can see the dye results from the weld leaves and flowers in front of the weld jar. From left to right, silk ribbon, sw merino, 100% alpaca, 100% wool, all mordanted with Alum.

To plant Weld from seed, distribute the seed on top of moist soil and lightly dust the surface with more soil to cover the seeds. Water the area by misting so the seeds don't float away. I start planting Weld as early as March in Oakland, CA. Water daily to keep seeds moist so they germinate. The leaves are long and sword-like and grow in a rosette pattern. If you are lucky the plant will start shooting up the flower stalk in a few months.

We sell Weld seeds in packs of 50 at the AVFKW store, so you can get started, right away!

Happy Gardening and Dyeing!

Drying Dyestuffs - The Harvest and The Storage

When you are foraging or harvesting plants for dyeing you may only collect a few at a time.  Sometimes not even enough to make a dye pot's worth.  For example: I use at least 2:1 amount of plant material to yarn for any dyeing I do.   That means if I have a 4oz skein of wool yarn, I need at least 8 oz of plant material to do my project.  If I can't collect enough in that one day I will keep the plants material for when I do have enough.

The best way to do this is to store the material in a air tight container out of sunlight. However, whether it be flower, mushroom, leaf etc., it usually has some moisture content and needs to dry out completely before storing or it will mold.

Below I have listed my favorite ways to dry my plants and mushrooms.

#1 - Food Dehydrator - I put buying one of these off for a long time because of the cost - but I am glad I finally got one!  They are so predictable and fast. It takes about one day to dry materials which is great for storing your materials fast.

 #2. Hang to dry - This is an easy, low cost, and pretty way to display your plants and dry them for future use. I harvest a few items at a time and tie them with twine and hang them upside down.

 

 #3. Dry outside on a screen - it provides good air flow to dry the flowers quickly and dries a large amount all at once.

After drying your dye materials I suggest putting them in an airtight container. The cool jars below we found at an antique store.  These materials are now ready for dyeing and look nice hanging out until you do!

Happy Harvesting and Dyeing!

Presenting: The Modern Natural Dyer by Kristine Vejar

 

I am happy to announce the new book by Kristine Vejar!  Kristine has been working on this book for the past 2 years.  I am so proud of her for putting together her work together to share with the world.  If you don't know Kristine, she is a natural dyer, who lives and works in Oakland, California.  Kristine owns A Verb for Keeping Warm, a 1,700 sq. ft. brick and mortar space that is dedicated to natural fibers, teaching, and producing beautiful naturally dyed yarn, fiber, and fabric.  Half the space is a retail store that showcases yarn from various other companies that Kristine has curated and feels is vital to the beauty of hand making.  She believes in natural fibers, such as wool, and produces three different lines of yarn that are made from local wool and naturally dyed by her.  She is also invested in domestic manufacturing and small production artisans working in her community.  

The Modern Natural Dyer guides you through the dyeing process by introducing the many plants that give reliable and colorfast dyes.  Kristine then describes in detail, with beautiful how-to images by amazing photographer, Sara Remington, the preparation of materials to work as a foundation for your dyeing adventures.  The book then presents you with 20 different textile projects that exemplifies each skill needed for a successful natural dyeing practice. 

You can find the book in your local bookstore or online at : http://www.averbforkeepingwarm.com/collections/the-modern-natural-dyer/products/the-modern-natural-dyer

The Modern Natural Dyer: A Comprehensive Guide to Dyeing Silk, Wool, Linen, and Cotton at Home 

by Kristine Vejar 

Published by Abrams, STC Craft,  New York. 2015

ISBN: 978-1-61769-175-1

$29.95