Natural Dyeing with Somerset Guild

Just back from a lovely weekend with the members of Somerset Guild of Weavers, Spinners & Dyers. Saturday was a talk and sales tables and on Sunday we had a fun time exploring natural dyes.

Starting with primary colours we created red with madder, yellow with weld and blue with Saxon blue. If you’ve never used Saxon blue before it’s a natural blue dye made with natural indigo but formulated into a dye liquor that will dye protein fibres beautiful shades of turquoise/teal blue. As it’s mordanted with alum there’s no need for an indigo vat which makes it great for easy greens, purples and violets. You can buy Saxon blue and see the lovely shades it produces here.