My garden has been sitting wild for the past two seasons. There have been no seeds planted. No weeds pulled. No grape vines tended. And I have missed it. I have missed the flowers. And the herbs. And the vegetables. I have missed the harvesting of abundance.
vines simmering on the stove
After pruning my vines, I remembered I had some muslin fabric that I had set aside for dyeing. I have been wanting to try some new color combos achieved with over dyeing. Such as marigolds over grape vines. Or carrot tops over onion skins. I remember the first time I pruned the vines, I wanted to try and weave a basket. I filled a large pot and sat it on the stovetop to simmer to kill any bugs that lingered deep. When I checked on it later, I noticed the color of the water was a beautiful deep pink and i wondered if i could use it to dye fabric. I didn’t know what I was doing, I just simply went with intention of discovery.
the beautiful deep color
It worked…sort of. The color wasn’t as deep as I had wished, so I started to research all I could about dyeing naturally. That was three years ago. I still have lots to learn, but I have enjoyed the journey of discovery.
drying in the sun.
I also plan to keep simmering the dye after i remove the fabric, in order to create my own botanical ink. I’ll let you know how that turns out.
