Wednesday, November 26, 2008

Mexican Field Notes for Nature Gathered

I'm getting caught up with my Nature Gathered posts. While in Mexico, the process of using natural materials for dyes really interested me. Both the weavers and the candle makers used
the same plant-based dyes for blue, green, yellow, brown or tan and cochineal for red. The colors are wonderful, rich and very earthy.

2 comments:

Jo Reimer said...

This is a nice drawing/painting, Paula of the colorful yarns hanging to dry. Natural dyes have an appeal to me, too, but I was never very successful. I dyed some yarn with onion skins but the color washed right out because I didn't know to use a mordant. It might be fun to try with paper.

Gwen said...

This is a beautiful painting! I also like natural dyes, but they are too much work for me. The process is fascinating, though!