journal – Page 2 – Wool and Nature

Golden Colour

may 2023

Our small world in the mountains is slowly changing. When early Spring was still cold and grey, nature is finally waking up. We see wild flowers in full bloom everywhere on our walks, the mountains are finally green again. The air is softly scented with gorse. I love this time of year!

There is a field in the middle of the forest not so far from our home. It is so beautiful right now because it is overgrown with wild flowers. There are so many colours and different flowers, which is so inspiring. I like to go there and bring my sketch book to draw up some sketches and ideas. Here and there I pick some flowers for my natural dye diary.

A while ago I experimented dyeing with onion skins, and I couldn’t be more happy with the deep golden colours. I thought I’d share my natural dye adventure with you.

The skins are high in tannin and because of this, the colour will bind to the fabric without the addition of any other ingredients or a mordant. Nothing so simple as to collect the onion skins at the bottom of the crate when you are on your local farmers market. You can collect yellow onion skins for rich yellow shades or red onion skins for shades of brown. You can mix them to expand your colour palette.

For this experiment I used equal parts onion skins to WOF. But you can also use half the weight of fibre to onion skins.

Add the onion skins to your dye pot and cover with enough water and leave overnight. The next day, bring slowly to a boil, then reduce to a low simmer for about 30 minutes to one hour. During the simmering the water will give a red colour. Then turn of the heat and leave it to cool. Strain out the onion skins by using a sieve and let the dye bath sit for one night.

Carefully place your prewashed and soaked linen into the dye pot and simmer gently for at least 30 minutes. To modify the colours you can add iron to the dye bath to have beautiful shades of green and grey mauve.

When you are happy with the colour you can remove the linen from the pot and rinse it with a pH-neutral soap and hang to dry.

Happy dyeing!

x Claire

Nuit Étoilée

april 2024

Our little hamlet has finally transitioned into a spring. The ancient chestnut forests higher up in the mountains are still in winter sleep, but the fruit trees in our garden are in full bloom.

When I started dyeing with indigo I just fell in love with the beautiful depth of blue shades that came out of the vat. I couldn’t believe how rich these shades were. In the back of my mind I had this idea to work with this natural dye a bit more from an illustrative persepective.

Holding these indigo dyed pieces of fabric always remind me of the night sky. We live secluded in the mountains which gives us the opportunity to have a clear view of the milky way. It is hard to not look up at night when I walk to dog before I go to sleep.

Normally when I start something new, I make sketches or browse through my sketch book for ideas. From there I start with the illustrations and turn them into a actual project. Painting the illustrations on the fabric, choosing the colours and finally the dye bath.

This time I let the beautiful shades of indigo lead me the way. I have always been very interested in the ancient science of the universe. I have this wonderful book with a eclectic collection of medieval illustrations of the universe, the stars, the sun. It describes the believes people had back then, when they looked up at the night sky, reading the stars, looking at the phases of the moon. I just felt I had to do something with this theme. And so this new natural dye adventure began…

A sweet poem by Rossetti before I say goodbye to you.

the sunrise wakes the lark to sing
the moonrise wakes the nightingale
come, darkness, moonrise, everything
that is so silent, sweet and pale:
come, so ye wake the nightingale

Medicinal Plants Quilt

march 2024

The winter months have come and gone. I can’t believe that we are welcoming spring equinox soon. It is a beautiful day here in the South of France. Still cold but the sun shines all day and to be given these extra hours in the day is so welcome after a long winter. I have been taken advantage of the longer days and had many beautiful walks.

I wanted to share a little bit with you about the medicinal plants quilt I made this winter. The idea of this quilt design was born when the world around our little hamlet was still very cold with moody skies. I was inspired by a little medicinal plants book that I once found in a second hand book shop. I selected medicinal plants that were either familiar to my surroundings or that I felt intuitively connected to. And so I started this journey with drawing up these medicinal plants, dreaming about the colours that would compliment the illustrations. I felt that I wanted to use different shades of earth tones in one plant, and I couldn’t be more happy how these botanical illustrations came out of the dye pot.

Wishing you a lovely spring.

x Claire

Indigo Dreams

september 2022

I love September! The change of light cast over the mountains, thunderstorms and rain. The burnt colours of the forests around us. With cooler nights and mornings, the sun is still warm during the day. This morning, I took a walk with our dog Orangina to the top of the mountain to watch the sun come up.

I wanted to share with you the work of my hands and heart from the past couple of weeks of my life. I felt so inspired by the wonderous indigo and making this quilt. This indigo quilt was on my mind all the time, even in my dreams. Excited to get up early in the morning to work on this amazing project.

Indigo is one of my favourite dyes to work with and at the same time the dye process frightens me a bit. Very earthy with a touch of magic. I had to let it just go and fully enjoy watching the magic before my eyes. And those beautiful deep hues that come out of the vat. Look at those shades of blue!

I pieced every part of this quilt together, each part tells it’s own story. I started with some small ideas, firstly painting the mixed media birds. And from there I let the illustrations for the other parts come intuitively to me. My inspiration comes from my life, from exploring my home here in the mountains, walking our dog in the ancient forests. A bird on a tree branch. Some wild flowers. Our summer garden. The night sky. I love where we live, and how nature that surrounds our home continues to inspire me. I want to express that in my work.

x Claire

Quilted Summer Days

august 2022

This morning, we woke up to the sound of rain and thunder. The windows in the bedroom were wide open and the cold breeze woke me up fresh and early. We have been waiting for this rain for a very long time.

It has been so hot over the last few weeks that it has been difficult for me to get a lot of work done. I always feel a bit guilty about that, and I am not quite sure why. Maybe it is an artists thing, there are always so many new ideas and projects on my mind that it is difficult for me to unwind. So one early morning I went to the river because I know it helps me to relax. The water was cold, the chill awakend me and my mind felt fresh again.

In the studio I started on a new quilt design. I loved making the smaller quilts, and now I am challenging myself by making a large quilt. The first design ideas for this new quilt were drawn in my sketchbook, ready to be painted onto linen. The only direction I gave myself was dyeing with indigo, and the rest I leave intentionally open. In my minds eye I try to see the indigo dyed quilt, but not for too long. Otherwise it will keep me from being free and fearless.

The next step in the process is to take different parts of the small sketches and turn them into one true to size illustration. I always leave this paper version of the quilt either on the floor or hang it on the wall, just to look at it while I do other things in the studio. It helps me to really see what is in front of me, if there is something missing or that I should change elements of the design. This process can sometimes take weeks.

I am so excited to start with the painting and indigo dyeing of this quilt! I love the rich possibilites of the soft medium of linen, painted, dipped in indigo and stitched into something new. I am so drawn to the colour and texture, the flowing process of natural dyeing. I hope to show you more about the process in the coming weeks!

Well, that’s a little glimpse at the past few weeks of my life. I hope you are all well in every way, and that you enjoyed the summer so far. More soon and all love from the South of France!

x Claire

Dyeing with Saint-John's-Wort

august 2022

With the sun high in the sky, I love to take my dog deep into the woods to cool off a bit. I like to sit against one of the ancient chestnut trees and let the wind blow through my hair while listening to the soft sounds in the forest. The sun peeks through the leaves of the trees, but that doesn’t matter because the with moss covered stones and cool earth give me comfort. When I walk down from the mountains, I walk through fields of wild flowers. The flowers of Saint-John’s-Wort are easy to recognise with their happy yellow coloured flowers shining bright like the summer sun.

The flowers of the Saint-John’s-Wort produce green, red and yellow shades, and can be used fresh or dried. For this dye adventure I used fresh cut flowers and let them simmer until the dye liquid was deep red. I strained off the dye liquid, added the linen fabric and let it simmer until the dye bath gave the linen a beautiful shade of golden yellow.

I usually dye only with linen but sometimes I can get my hands on some local wool and dye a skein or two for small knitting projects. For a green colour I add a mordanted wool skein to the dye bath and let it simmer for about 15 minutes. Deep earthy red colours are achieved by simmering unmordanted wool skeins for about an hour in the dye bath.

Wishing you a lovely summer and happy dyeing!

x Claire