Prepare to Dye

Last week we began our natural dying lessons. We gathered yellowroot (top photo), curly dock plant & roots, blackberry shoots and wild cherry bark around the school grounds. I brought bloodroot and roots off my eastern red cedar from home. A friend had collected marigold blooms and froze them for me last summer and my independent study student and I had gathered and dried goldenrod last fall. Cassie donated black walnuts for the dye pots. The only dyestuff we purchased was indigo. The first two days of dying we cooked down our dye liquors (bottom photo). The third day was dedicated to mordanting the wool. After all the prep work we were really excited to get down to the actual dying. This has been wonderful for the kids. People were coming into the room following their noses to the strange smells emanating from our pots with "Phew, what's that smell?" heard from more than one passerby. The kids would just patiently explain what they were doing and laugh about the "smelly" comments. Results of the lesson to follow...