After finishing the Textile Art and Art Quilting course at DIY Textile school in Amsterdam, I decided to deepen my knowledge and skills on some of the new techniques I learned.
Dyeing fabric was one of these and I booked a one day course by Lucilla Kenny in December. However, the trees in the street around the corner turned in a beautiful red in September, and I couldn’t resist to fiddle around with the leaves. I found out it were Maple trees, and I started collecting the fallen amber coloured leaves, and also leaves from the Fig tree in our backyard.
With the help of Google, I found some information about dyeing fabric with natural products, however, it was not completely clear, and I couldn’t find clear recipes. So, I decided to follow the instructions from the Mixed Media course (after all, the (powder) dye that we used there was also natural?).
I offered an old pot and cooked and boiled and simmered the leaves on the kitchen stove, leaving my husband a bit worrisome (‘Are you sure this is not bad for our health?’), but I convinced him that it was all very natural! I prepared some cotton for the experiment with soda ash, and gave it a try!
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After the workshop with Lucilla, I realised that I had not used enough water, and that, if I had added a mordant, the result might have been better. But you know what? You are never too old to learn! And I am sure, I will take another dyeing class with Lucilla in the future!
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