DEDICATED TO SLOW ART AT EVERY STAGE OF PRODUCTION, JULIA WORKS ORGANICALLY WITH NATURE, ALLOWING IT TO DO MUCH OF THE WORK IN ITS OWN TIME. GROWING, HARVESTING AND DYEING IS SEASONAL AND RHYTHMIC FOR HER, USING ALL PARTS OF THE PLANTS IN THE PROCESS OF DYEING HER OWN WENSLEYDALE FIBRE. NOW BASED IN WILTSHIRE, UK, SHE IS PLANNING A NEW DYE GARDEN.
Wensleydale is a rare breed fibre, with a fleece that is wonderful for natural dyeing. It is often rightly called the Queen of Fibres or a ‘noble’ fibre, arguably acknowledging its position globally as the finest quality lustre longwool. Certainly, once touched, it’s never forgotten!
I began breeding black Wensleydales (ranging from silver grey to black), along with a few white wethers, over twenty years ago.
Structurally, it is unique as a lobate cellular fibre, with flat, smooth, light-reflecting scales surrounding the cortex. The dye strike cells (known as ortho-cortex) are apparently richly distributed throughout the para-cortex. Making conscious, informed choices when selecting fibres could avoid much frustration by using fleeces with bi-lateral or bi-lobal cortex structure and fewer dye cells “badly placed” for dye ad- or absorption. Once dye cells are saturated, no amount of re-dipping will add to colour depth, more research would benefit all wool fibre makers.
WENSLEYDALE AS A DYEING AND FELTING FIBRE
The smoothness and lustre of this wool gives a wonderful colour intensity and depth, but this comes at a cost. The wool is slippery, has a mind of its own and is not easy to feel. The time, effort, expense are part of a Slow Art Commitment.
My processes includes dry and wet felting and hand sewing, using second-quality locks as carded batts to form a woollier base on which to anchor the dyed, longer-surface locks. I use many tools for these different stages.
Each fleece is unique, as are different sections of the fleece for example, urinated, belly wool locks from wethers offer a bonus of colour mutation when dyed, as do the longer shearling locks, where some of the soft, bleached ends can dye a deeper shade.
To add to the colour variables, I use silver grey, steel grey and bleached brown locks when experimenting with madder, cochineal, indigo and other stronger colours. Too much degradation will lead to breakage (see my Instagram mini videos). This blending of natural and dyed locks to different degrees creates a unique colour harmonic. Nothing jars visually, even clashing colours. The large wallhangings are an invitation to stop, look and absorb colour and texture slowly as a gift from nature;
Jason’s Golden Fleece’ has 23 different coloured shades. Random dyeing – working a dyebath until it is exhausted and playing with natural modifiers – allows it to give up colour in all its subtleties and unexpected tones. I often use two dye baths at once, taking locks from one to the other and bending the colours by adding acid or alkali as I go along. Future pieces can then benefit from surprise choices.
MORDANTS AND BIO-MORDANTS, AND THEIR ROLE IN NATURAL DYEING
Mineral mordants have been used for centuries to brighten colour or, by etching, to ‘bite’ into the fibre and make colour more durable. They lift the outer scales to do this, which is something I want to avoid, so I don’t use pre-mordanting. Instead, I focus on substantive and direct plant material using roots, leaves, bark and berries, and there is a rich store to choose from: alder buckthorn, eucalyptus, staghorn sumac, weld, woad, indigo and rhubarb root to name but a few. (Image 6) Pomegranate rind can be added to dye baths as a fixative without much colour change, and bark tannins or oak galls can also play a part. Aluminium, copper or iron pans will all gently affect colours from the first immersion of the plant material. Even intense colour from madder or cochineal depends as much on the quality and derivation of the material, the water (cochineal hates acidic water) and the temperature, as on mordanting (see Susan Dye’s excellent article in Feltmatters Issue 138 – 2020, “Getting into Red”). I love the unpredictability! “Whole” cochineal insects and madder roots deliver greater dye colour than ground powder, especially for re-using and opening up deep shades. Concentration of dye is often the answer here. Copper/iron water/soda ash offer differing results, and over-dyeing yellows with indigo or eucalyptus add greens to my range, while adding alum to a cochineal dye-bath produces purples. I aim to avoid dye wastage and a final wash and rinse in an afterbath of weak vinegar water can consolidate colour. Exploring one source of dye at a time continually expands my range.
PREPARATION OF DYE MATERIAL AND PIGMENTS
Growing and harvesting my own material has special appeal in the summer months, with green walnuts, green alder buckthorn berries and weld, followed by Japanese indigo, golden rod, sumac, rhubarb root and more. I use both dried and fresh material as the results may vary.
Most of my preparation and dyeing is done slowly: to release colour from leaves, bark and roots, chop the plant material finely and leave to soak for several days in rainwater. Wintertime offers an interior colour landscape while days are darker outside. Locks and yarn can be immersed in a cold dyebath and left to steep overnight (or longer), inviting nature to complete your work, before heating to simmer. A metal colander, plus a net inside a deep pot, separates the dyestuff at the bottom. To guarantee results, measure/note the pH of the water.
And what of concentrated natural pigment? A small box of Peruvian pigments with scribbled labels was once given to me. After much searching, I confirmed that I had probably got yiampo (red), quico/qolle (yellow and orange) from buddleia coriacea, malachite (dark green) and eucalyptus, amongst others. Some provided a feast of colours for the dyed locks in my piece, Dragonfire , only requiring the tiniest pinch for strong shades. They certainly speeded up the process! Future adventures with avocado skins, juniper needles and salt extraction with indigo all beckon.