One of the reasons I have been short on posts over the last weeks is partly because I got a bit obsessive about eco-dyeing! I have touched on the subject before but I have learned this craft can become very addictive. My dogs have not been impressed as they have a routine for their daily outings and do not let me forget it. That is a good thing I will add, as I too need those daily walks. My husband wasn’t totally impressed either as a pot of simmering yarrow is not particulary pleasant. That was easily solved by moving the operation into the greenhouse.

I wrote before about Tatagazomi or flower pounding but then I discoved the ‘Dirty Pot’ or reactive pot method of dyeing. Nicola Brown with her informative videos got me into this. It is a method of eco-dyeing where the pot and its contents actually act as the mordants to keep prints within the fibres. Recalling more about natural dyes I had used in my College years , I did some more reading and also had fun collecting some natural materials for for pre-dyeing my fabrics before hammering.

Most people have heard of using onion skins for making a natural dye and they do work wonderfully well but I have also discovered Yarrow and Tansy. Yarrow releases a gentle sage green and Tansy a butter yellow. Although this was another path I took on my rediscovery of ecodyeing I did not use these in the dirty pot but only before hammering flower or leaf prints.

As the name ‘Dirty Pot’ suggests, fabrics going through this process take on colour from the contents of the pot as well as the botanicals being used. The colours using this method are subtle, soft, beautiful greys and browns.The brighter realistic colours produced by hammering do not happen in this method. The tannin in the plant material is converted into ferrous tannate which is absorbed by the fabric where it becomes totally colourfast. Hammered flower prints can be made to be colour fast but not as reliably so and may well fade over time.

A trip to the thrift store provided me with a large roasting aluminum pot I needed. Into this went some white vinegar, water, a piece of tannin producing bark and a rusty railway spike to provide iron. Boiled up for about an hour produced the medium required. This liquid can be used many times over for dyeing the prepared bundles.

I chose to use cotton but silk or wool will print more easily. I found packages of 100% cotton bar towels in Walmart but old cotton sheets or T shirts will work equally well. I have now purchased fine cotton mull in order to make scarves with both tatagazomi and dirty pot dyeing.

The damp fabric is sprayed with vinegar. High tannin leaves are arranged on the fabric. I have found Oak, Maple, Baptisia and Rose to always be reliable. The fabric is then rolled up around a metal pipe such as copper or aluminum and tied tightly with string . I have now varied this procedure by using torn strips from old sheets and also wrapping the bundle beforehand to reduce string lines. With larger pieces of fabric that need to be folded I used the flexible stem of a sunflower. The finished bundle is immersed in the dirty looking liquid in the pot and allowed to simmer for about two hours. Once cooled the dye bundles are removed and unwrapped. It is like Christmas everytime because the results are always a surprise.

I have obviously condensed the process here but there are so many useful videos and Instagram accounts that explore this fun craft, anyone interested can find them.

I shall continue to experiment and learn more as I go. I started by thinking this is a great way to get to know my plants better and that has proven to be so true. Which plants have more tannin and why they have tannin. How colours work, the physics and chemistry involved, the history of dye producing plants. So much to explore.

Just search eco-dyeing in the search bar if you wish to see my previous experiments and learning.