Jan Quarles of Daily Fibers and I just got together for a long awaited girl's weekend of natural dyeing. We played with Jan's style of combining eco printing and shibori techniques. She had been stockpiling eucalyptus and rose leaves and I had scored tons of red cabbage leaves from Carlene Mayes the flower lady a the Sewanee Farmers Market. I had also foraged for walnut hulls and red plum leaves and had saved a winters worth of red onion skins. The pieces above are Jan's; from top to bottom a combination of red onion skins and eucalyptus leaves, walnuts with eucs and just plain eucs.
We really had fun with the red cabbage bath. Silk, wool and cotton all came out a lovely rose lavender, but with a quick dip in an alkaline afterbath we got not blue but brilliant green!!!
My Habotai
My plum leaves with red onion skins on organza.
