all my colours

until now

:-))

lower left is onionskins

lower right is anthemis tinctoria. The larger skein is the first bath, the three smaller ones are the second. to their left is 1st: ironwater afterbath, 2nd vinegar afterbath. right over the three 2ndbath skeins is the ammonia afterbath

the other long skein, a greenish yellow or yellowish light green if you prefer are the flowers in the header of the blog

we call it moloha

upper left, 3 small skeins are the new twigs and leaves of pistachia lentiscus, we call it schoino, (schinus)the dark grey-green is ironwater afterbath, it changed in seconds- i pulled it out immediately.

the next two are 2nd and 1st bath.

next to the moloha is salvia.

all dyed by boiling the plantstuff first, straining then adding mordanted yarn

in the middle, on top of the others is eucalyptus bark collected on the beach, soaked in alcohol (clear) and then boiled- no mordant

the purple and lavender are from alkanet, soaked in alcohol, mordanted wool, various dyebaths, no modifiers-

the pink is from a spice bought in Athens called sumak

the man said it has nothing to do with the tree

it was dark red, i heated it up with water, and popped the wool in it (premordanted) the water was pink with yellow underneath, kept it simmering lightly for about twenty minutes and then let it soak until morning

the lighter pink is in the same bath, I just put the wool in and let it soak for four days. the temp here is between 15 and 20 degrees these days

the browns and ecru are tea, just to see what happens

I definitely need reds and blues, I havent found woad or indigoferas wild, still looking

I am amazed at the variety of yellows, the shades all look great, especially with other colours

a yes, I forgot the one which I called cousin of weld, it is reseda lutea and not luteola- giving a horseradish smell

it is next to the onions under the schinus

happy hunting

madder!

it is rubia peregrina(I think), there's tons of it around, there even is an area called "rizari" -Greek for madder -not very far away from here, near marathon

yes I am happy

it likes growing under other plants, or maybe it is because the sheep can't reach it in there.

the problem is that the roots are all tangled with the other plants' roots

it likes climbing up and getting tangled in the others branches

so it is a very together plant

luckily for me you can easily tell which are its roots from the colour

dark reddish brown on the harder, woody parts and yellowish on the newer softer parts.

there are also some spongy bits which are soaking separately

it took me a very long time to cut them up into small bits

the first water of the roots is orange-brown, I have kept it in a jar

the roots have been soaking for two days now and there was hardly any colour in the water until I started warming them up, no higher than 50 c

now it is brown

all light coloured parts are pink!

I'm improvising, since I won't have any mordanted wool for a few days

they are in 2 jars, the woody roots. one has part of a pillowcase (cotton) soaking in it since last night along with some oak bark. this has gone pinky-dirty-light brown

i'm tinkering, waiting and seeing

and sitting on my hands so I don't tinker too much, also I will wait for the heat to arrive before I gather more roots

Today I went alkanet gathering, from a different place than before

luckily for me Golden Helping Hands Greenfingers were there to help because there were lots

I am letting them dry so that I can knock off most of the earth before washing them tomorrow.

it was a good hunting day

transient beauty fugitive magic

Im glad I got pictures before the cutting of the grasses

a frenzied weekend

dyeing also

I am especially proud of my alkanna purple

my first attempt was grey.

the yellow is anthemis tinctoria

I will say hello properly later

this was to get it out of my system!

goodmorning