Botanical Dyeing

When Celia and I went on the Anglesea Art trail late last year we met Deb Elliott who was doing dyeing on silk using native plants
The results looked fabulous so we decided to book in for a workshop
It was delayed in March as I had hurt my back and couldn't do the drive down, but we had it this week in Anglesea
It was a fascinating process of laying out leaves, small pliant  branches in a  pattern and then covering in heavy paper and wrapping then boiling in water mixed with iron sulphate (other stuff can be added for different results
The results were a pale grey background to some surprising results
the same leaves on different prices had different results but we were all thrilled and oooh and Aah as they were unwrapped

One end of mine using Long gum leaves and the blue leaf Gum 

Our 4 scarves  Mich, Di, Ceia Suelynn 

The four sections of my scarf printed on silk 

when we had laid the leaves on the silk we covered it with a heavy paper that also absorbed the colour

the two sheets of resulting paper