{"id":357,"date":"2018-09-01T16:04:44","date_gmt":"2018-09-01T16:04:44","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/paulhenrykilts.com\/wordpress\/?p=357"},"modified":"2018-09-07T20:32:00","modified_gmt":"2018-09-07T20:32:00","slug":"local-colours-from-local-plants","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/paulhenrykilts.com\/wordpress\/?p=357","title":{"rendered":"Local colours from local plants"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Following on from an earlier post<\/a> about collecting local plants and making dyes with them\u00a0 for a Heritage Open Day, I’ve finished and created a show board<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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The finished hanging board<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The list of plants used, I chose them because they could have been around 1000 years ago, there were dozens of others, but I have left them in the ground for another time<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n
Alder<\/strong><\/td> – <\/strong><\/td>bark<\/strong><\/td> – <\/strong><\/td>Alnus\u00a0<\/em><\/strong><\/td><\/tr>
Birch<\/strong><\/td> – <\/strong><\/td>bark<\/strong><\/td> – <\/strong><\/td>\u200eBetula pendula <\/em><\/strong><\/td><\/tr>
Coffee<\/strong><\/td> – <\/strong><\/td>seeds<\/strong><\/td> – <\/strong><\/td>Coffea <\/em><\/strong><\/td><\/tr>
Hawthorn<\/strong><\/td> – <\/strong><\/td>fruit<\/strong><\/td> – <\/strong><\/td>Crataegus monogyna<\/em><\/strong><\/td><\/tr>
Hawthorn<\/strong><\/td> – <\/strong><\/td>bark<\/strong><\/td> – <\/strong><\/td>Crataegus monogyna<\/em><\/strong><\/td><\/tr>
Queen Annes Lace<\/strong><\/td> – <\/strong><\/td>flower<\/strong><\/td> – <\/strong><\/td>Daucus carota <\/em><\/strong><\/td><\/tr>
Ash<\/strong><\/td> – <\/strong><\/td>key<\/strong><\/td> – <\/strong><\/td>Fraxinus excelsior<\/em><\/strong><\/td><\/tr>
Ivy leaves<\/strong><\/td> – <\/strong><\/td>leaves<\/strong><\/td> – <\/strong><\/td>Hedera Helix<\/em><\/strong><\/td><\/tr>
Lichen<\/strong><\/td> – <\/strong><\/td>whole<\/strong><\/td> – <\/strong><\/td>Lichen<\/em><\/strong><\/td><\/tr>
Lichen and twigs<\/strong><\/td> – <\/strong><\/td>whole<\/strong><\/td> – <\/strong><\/td>Lichen<\/em><\/strong><\/td><\/tr>
Cherry<\/strong><\/td> – <\/strong><\/td>bark<\/strong><\/td> – <\/strong><\/td>Prunus<\/em><\/strong><\/td><\/tr>
Sloe<\/strong><\/td> – <\/strong><\/td>fruit<\/strong><\/td> – <\/strong><\/td>Prunus spinosa <\/em><\/strong><\/td><\/tr>
Bracken brown<\/strong><\/td> – <\/strong><\/td>leaves<\/strong><\/td> – <\/strong><\/td>Pteridium <\/em><\/strong><\/td><\/tr>
Oak<\/strong><\/td> – <\/strong><\/td>galls<\/strong><\/td> – <\/strong><\/td>Quercus<\/em><\/strong><\/td><\/tr>
Oak<\/strong><\/td> – <\/strong><\/td>wood<\/strong><\/td> – <\/strong><\/td>Quercus<\/em><\/strong><\/td><\/tr>
Bramble<\/strong><\/td> – <\/strong><\/td>fruit<\/strong><\/td> – <\/strong><\/td>Rubus<\/em><\/strong><\/td><\/tr>
Bramble<\/strong><\/td> – <\/strong><\/td>leaves<\/strong><\/td> – <\/strong><\/td>Rubus<\/em><\/strong><\/td><\/tr>
Dock brown<\/strong><\/td> – <\/strong><\/td>seeds<\/strong><\/td> – <\/strong><\/td>Rumex<\/em><\/strong><\/td><\/tr>
Dock green<\/strong><\/td> – <\/strong><\/td>seeds<\/strong><\/td> – <\/strong><\/td>Rumex<\/em><\/strong><\/td><\/tr>
Willow<\/strong><\/td> – <\/strong><\/td>leaves<\/strong><\/td> – <\/strong><\/td>Salix<\/em><\/strong><\/td><\/tr>
Elder<\/strong><\/td> – <\/strong><\/td>fruit<\/strong><\/td> – <\/strong><\/td>Sambucus <\/em><\/strong><\/td><\/tr>
Elder<\/strong><\/td> – <\/strong><\/td>flower<\/strong><\/td> – <\/strong><\/td>Sambucus <\/em><\/strong><\/td><\/tr>
Comfrey<\/strong><\/td> – <\/strong><\/td>leaves<\/strong><\/td> – <\/strong><\/td>Symphytum officinale <\/em><\/strong><\/td><\/tr>
Nettle<\/strong><\/td> – <\/strong><\/td>leaves<\/strong><\/td> – <\/strong><\/td>Urtica dioica <\/em><\/strong><\/td><\/tr><\/tbody><\/table>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The blurb for the show board\u00a0<\/em> <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Wool comes in almost white, almost black, and a light brown, or combinations of, although they can be blended and mixed the colour range is very plain but with careful planing and design there are many permutations . Doubtless by chance the first stains and dyes were discovered which might have been nothing more than coloured earths, but it wasn’t long before leaves, flowers, and barks were used to create a great range of extra colours.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\nNorthern\nEurope doesn’t have a climate suitable for many of the plants of the\ntropics,but even with the cooler climes a very worthwhile range of\nshades and colours were found and used.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n I’ve\nchosen to work with some local plants within a small area roughly\ncentred on St. Johns and extending to the Hogsmill river, selecting\nones that are native and would have been known a thousand years ago,\nand could well have been used to colour local wool. The wool sadly\nisn’t local but a Shetland wool, and of a type which would have been\nknown then , spun thinly and plyed to make a fine yarn suitable for\nweaving.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\nSome\nof the wool was mordanted with \u201cAlum\u201d, a salt which helps dye\ncolours bind to the fibres leading to better longevity and fastness\nbut it’s not needed for every colour. Modifiers were also used \nwhich alter the shade or tone of the colour. One modifier was simply\nan iron cauldron, the iron acting to sadden the colour, generally\nmaking it greyer, although only a small amount is needed as too much\ncan lead to degradation of the wool. The other modifier I used was\nammonia, this enhances the warmer colours, traditionally, aged urine\nwas used but I chose to use household cleaning grade instead.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n This\nmeans that for every plant there are at least three possible colour\nvariations. I’ve been careful about trying to use materials and\nmethods which would have been familiar to a Mediaeval dyer whose\nsheep could even have been recorded in the Domesday book.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And I must add the watercolour painting that I first saw last year\u00a0 in the display at the Church which gave me the idea of the dyeing project, just\u00a0 and because\u00a0 I noticed the sheep!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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St Johns Church dated somewhere between 1847 and 1867, before the Victorian addition<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Following on from an earlier post about collecting local plants and making dyes with them\u00a0 for a Heritage Open Day, I’ve finished and created a show board The list of plants used, I chose them because they could have been around 1000 years ago, there were dozens of others, but I have left them in … Continue reading “Local colours from local plants”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[2,25],"class_list":["post-357","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-wool","tag-dyeing","tag-wool"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/paulhenrykilts.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/357","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/paulhenrykilts.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/paulhenrykilts.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/paulhenrykilts.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/paulhenrykilts.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=357"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"http:\/\/paulhenrykilts.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/357\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":379,"href":"http:\/\/paulhenrykilts.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/357\/revisions\/379"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/paulhenrykilts.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=357"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/paulhenrykilts.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=357"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/paulhenrykilts.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=357"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}