Learning about Saint John's Wort for dyeing

saint john's wort plant dyed wool skeins, indigo and muslin hand stitched patchwork on studio wall

Mid summer is the time to process wild Saint John's Wort for dye colour.  These flowers were gathered from our beach and weeded from drive way and juniper bushes. 

Hypericum perforatum.  Identified by the row of little black dots along the edges of the petal.

Jenny Dean advises that one can get four different shades on wool if just the flower heads are used.  This is my first time trying Saint John's Wort as a dye plant, and next time I will try to gather many more flower heads.  I only had about 3 oz. 

The recipe says to simmer the flowers until the dye liquid turns deep red and then strain it.  At first the liquid is a clear golden colour that looks red from above, but isn't.

It took about two hours to get the colour below and by then it was so concentrated that I had to add 3 cups of water and re-heat the strained colour to get enough liquid. 

I dyed three different pieces of wool along with skeins of about 2 oz each.  

The first one is the darker piece in the photo below.  Alum mordanted, simmered 15-20 minutes. (Jenny Dean advised that I would get a green colour).  

The middle piece of wool in photo above was UN mordanted wool, simmered one hour. (This was supposed to turn red..but didn't.  In fact, it looks greenish don't you think?).  

Finally, the pale piece was steeped overnight.  It was mordanted with alum and cream of tarter first.

Even though I did not get the promised colours this time, I am pleased to be learning more about using plants from my local area to dye fabric and threads with.  Experience is the best teacher.  

I'm still working on dyeing a good amount of blanket weight wool to create a new piece with.  Above is the onion skin dyed piece from way back in May- more than 90 inches long, 50 inches wide. 

Two books were my guide for Saint John's Wort...both by Jenny Dean.
Wild Color: revised and updated  and A Heritage of Colour: Natural Dyes Past and Present

smile

It's my birthday today.

This vignette noticed before bed last night.

Editing Out

Textile artwork in a mainstream art show is very problematic. Textiles are too 'material' and quilting is REALLY problematic. If you show five textile pieces, the one that you'll have the most problems with in a fine art context is the quilt. People are sniffy about cloth art because it is so immediate and familiar.

Quotes from my tutorial with Catherine Dormor this morning. We were discussing textile practice within a fine art context and the difficulties that all of us who work with cloth and fibers face.

These are real issues and have no bearing on the quality, craftsmanship and conceptual underpinnings of one's work. They are issues that we need to be aware of even if we choose to work as we feel driven to work. Not to do so would be naive.

I'll miss discussions like this.

The artists who have managed to get textiles into the main stream of fine art have been established as fine artists first. Even an artist such as Magdalena Abakanowicz now mutes her textile past.

stitching in car

Although the plane brought us to Toronto last Thursday, we took our time coming home. South Western Ontario Northern Ontario





Ned drove.

I stitched.