Rubia tinctorum (common madder) may not look like a particularly exciting plant above ground, but the roots that grow laterally below the surface produce a beautiful red dye.  Since antiquity, madder has been cultivated for use as a textile dye in central Asia, Europe and northern Africa.  Rubia tinctorum is a plant we are able to grow in North America as well.  We successfully grew madder in our test garden last summer, and look forward to transplanting it to our new Natural Dye Garden location in the spring!  

This week we created three dye baths from locally sourced materials: acorns, concord grapes, and Hopi dye sunflower seeds.  We also welcomed a group of 9th grade visitors from the Akwesasne Freedom School to our dye studio on Tuesday evening, and together produced shibori (tie-dye) silk scarves from each dye bath.  The chemistry of the dyes is always interesting--the concord grape, for example, yields a purple dye, but turns to green when washed in an alkaline bath of soda ash and water.     

This afternoon we had the opportunity to prepare a dye bath with locally grown Hopi dye sunflower seed hulls. The dye is pH sensitive, and colors range from deep green to warm purple depending on the acidity or alkalinity of the dye bath. We are saving seeds to plant in the Natural Dye Garden next spring!

Students in the Natural Dye Studio had the opportunity to use locally grown Japanese Indigo from the dye garden of textile artist, Sarah Gotowka.  We look forward to growing Japanese Indigo in our natural dye garden!