2025 and later

I am working my way through Jason Logan's book "Make Ink" and currently boiled up some acorn caps for a rich dark grey ink for paper. I foraged a big paper bag full of large, smooth acorn caps from old oak trees near my Mom's house in Louisville, Kentucky last winter. I let them dry out first, then gave them a good wash before boiling them for 4-5 hours on a low simmer, the time split over 2 days.  After the boiling, I strained out the caps, added ferrous sulfate (iron salts that oxidizes the tannins within the dye/ink) to...

This spring I tried my first attempt at achieving black cotton with natural dyes. Coaxing the fabric to absorb layer after layer of colors was a very fun experiment and is just the beginning of a journey into richer, darker hues.  In the first picture I have the same fabric, undergoing the same dye process, with the darker cotton simply soaked in the dye bath longer by 2 or 3 weeks. I found an article on botanicalcolors.com that gives a detailed recipe for a European black dye that includes iron, tannin, and logwood.  There is a shimmering quality to the...

I was so excited to witness all the plant life in Costa Rica last summer that I brought a scoured and mordanted piece of cotton and some string so that I might bundle dye a bandana from the fallen flowers I come across. Let me be clear I had no intention and did not remove any plant matter from any forests, I only collected flowers along roadsides and neighborhoods that had fallen, along with 1 achiote pod from the farm I stayed on, with permission.  So, during our first week, I gathered bright crimson hibiscus, bougainvillea, and other bold and...

One of the goals I gave myself this year is to learn and develop the skills of more printing techniques. One of these techniques is a resist printing using a clay paste. I made the clay paste that can be thickened or thinned for painting or printing, and tested it by painted on a madder root dyed napkin. Once the clay dries, I dipped it into an indigo vat. After a couple minutes, I pulled out the napkin, and rinsed it. The clay prevents the indigo from grabbing into the painted areas, dyeing all other areas blue.  I have a...