Crafters who want to harvest natural dyeing materials straight from their yards can learn how by reading “A Garden to Dye For: How to Use Plants from the Garden to Create Natural Colors for Fabrics and Fibers” by garden expert Chris McLaughlin.
Artists and crafters tending flower or vegetable gardens can harvest so much more than blooms and veggies this summer. We can harvest color, folks – and lots of it.
In her new book, “A Garden to Dye For: How to Use Plants from the Garden to Create Natural Colors for Fabrics and Fibers,” (142 pages, $17.95) California garden expert Chris McLaughlin takes a gardener’s approach to natural dyeing. And while I’ve experimented a bit with natural dyeing methods outlined in dyeing books written for fiber artists, I appreciate McLaughlin’s low-key approach.
“As a hand spinner I’m aware of all the dye books,” said McLaughlin, 50, adding that she was surprised to find out that her gardening colleagues were “not using the plants in this way.”
And because she knows that gardeners are always looking for more reasons to grow things, she decide to explore natural dyeing from a gardener’s perspective.
“I thought I’d like to bridge that gap between these fiber artists knowing all about this already and the gardeners who are actually growing the plants,” she said.
And don’t feel bad if you don’t know all about natural dyeing or gardening. McLaughlin helps readers learn what they need to grow the plants and then dye with them after the harvest.
While other books on the topic tend to be more scientific and a bit more complicated, McLaughlin focuses on outlining the basics from dye material collection to fabric and fiber prep. She then walks readers through the process of heating the plant material to release the color and then transferring that color to silk scarves, yarn and even playdough. She also includes instructions for making watercolor dye paints out of a variety of plant life, including berries, herbs, beets and onion skins.
For those who really get into natural dyeing, McLaughlin’s book including plans for four kinds of dye gardens, including edible and cutting options.
In her new book, “A Garden to Dye For: How to Use Plants from the Garden to Create Natural Colors for Fabrics and Fibers,” California garden expert Chris McLaughlin takes a gardener’s approach to natural dyeing.
“You don’t have to be be a major gardener to do it,” McLaughlin said. “I just wrote it from the heart of a gardener. We’re the ones who love the plants.”
McLaughlin resides on a five-acre hobby farm where she maintains several gardens and raises a handful of fiber-producing animals, too. Her farm life is the realization of a childhood dream.
“I always laugh because I’m sort of this farmer internally who was brought into this IBM family,” McLaughlin said, about growing up with a traditional backyard and a father who worked for IBM.
But it was in that back yard that McLaughlin caught the gardening bug at age 10 when she decided to dig up seedlings and pot them in bathroom-sized Dixie cups. She loaded the seedlings into her brother’s wagon and sold them door-to-door for 10 cents per plant.
She went on to work for a florist at age 16 and then kept planting gardens when she got a place of her own.
“I got older and started writing about them,” she said.
It was a magazine article she read 20 years ago about using plants to dye Easter eggs that led her to to start experimenting with natural dyes.
Many of the artists and crafters I know are also avid gardeners, so “A Garden to Dye For” is likely to strike a cord with creative types.
McLaughlin recommends dying silk scarves with onion skins or marigold flowers for those looking for a satisfying first foray into natural dyeing.
Keep in mind that spent marigolds can be deadheaded and collected for dyeing, so there’s no need to waste colorful blooms. Likewise onion skins are readily available at your local grocery store. (Ask before you start collecting, but chances are good that most produce managers will be okay with you helping them clear out the onion skins that are otherwise discarded.)
McLaughlin also covers how to dye with coffee and tea bags that you can collect and freeze until you have enough to create a colorful dye bath.
“The experiments never end,” she said. “There’s just so much to dye.”
Email Jennifer Ackerman-Haywood at jennifer@craftsanity.com or send story ideas to P.O. Box 888192, Grand Rapids, MI 49588. Read Jennifer’s blog at craftsanity.com. Follow @CraftSanity on Twitter and Instagram and check out the latest edition of CraftSanity Magazine available for download at craftsanity.com.
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