The Dyer’s Garden

The Midnight Shuttles Guild from Campbell River have combined a penchant for gardening with a love of textiles.  They shared their experiences with us at our monthly meeting.  Their adventure began at Haig Brown House an historic site in Campbell River where they planted a dyer’s garden.  The plants included those that produce dye from their roots, leaves and stems, flowers and even seeds (sunflowers). The garden was a success but attracted pests in the form of rabbits and guests in the form of picnicking teddy bears (plus owners).

After many a skirmish with the rabbits the guild decided the best defense was to spread the plants throughout member’s gardens so one dye garden became many.     Along the way they have learned how best to harvest, dry and freeze the plant material.  Many common garden flowers such as marigolds, coreopsis and camomile can be used.  Madder is obtained from root materials so it requires planning ahead and patience (plus no rabbits).  

Growing the plants is only half of the enterprise.  The adventure continues with learning how to dye with the materials.  How concentrated is the dye in the plant material? What are the best conditions for the dye bath? How does the mordant affect the outcome?  How will metals such as iron alter the final colours?  We saw the results of their experiments if the form of wool dye samples.  They used alum as the primary mordant because it is considered safer than other metals.  Iron, which is easy to obtain was used as a “modifier” to “sadden” colours.  Acidity of the water also plays a role in the final colours.

Blue colours are obtained from plants in the indigofera genus.  They include the tropical indigofera tinctoria, as well as a number of plants like Woad and Japanese indigo that will grow in our climate.  You can see from the blue samples in the photo that the midnight shuttles guild was successful with indigo dyeing which leads to another exploration, dyeing with resists.  Resists can be created by stitching, wrapping on a pole, clamping boards, elastics, clothes pegs, etc etc.  The cloth is dyed with the resists in place then a magical pattern is revealed when the resists are removed and the cloth unfolded.

We would like to thank the Midnight Shuttles Guild for their presentation.  They have developed a body of knowledge about the cultivation of dye producing plants in our specific environment.  If anyone on Vancouver Island is looking to start their own dye garden you might want to contact them.  They can also tell you about all the strategies to keep rabbits at bay that don’t work in our environment but that is another story.