Eco dyeing and feltmaking

I have just had a wonderful three day workshop learning all about eco dyeing and feltmaking.

This is India Flint wearing her amazing coat of many dyes.

India uses plants and flowers, leaves and other vegetable matter to dye her felted wool, silk and cotton pre- loved fabrics. No mordant is needed other than the metal pot or little bits of copper that she finds and recycles.

A piece of felted wool dyed using eucalyptus leaves.

India is showing us how to prepare a piece for the dyepot. The leaves were collected from the ground around our workplace. This fabric was rolled up very tightly and put into a dye bath ( water boiling in a pot with leaves .) Obviously different leaves yield different colours.

My felted "landskin", comprising of stitched prefelted wool, oddments of silk and remnants of cotton and knitted bits of lace.