Driftwood and flowers, Sea and Sun

Creative thinking so often comes at night! After a day walking on a small island, one of Shetlands beautiful places, I was sitting thinking about a beach I had seen. Driftwood has often featured in various pieces of craftwork I've made and my meandering thoughts led to to consider how I could bring together the Shabby Chic Shetland and the Shetland Naturally projects. Here is the result of the journey .......

Memories of Summer

The flowers are all made using handspun wool and dyed naturally with plant dyes. The plants are all grown in my Natural Dye garden. Woad for blues and violets, madder root for reds and oranges, marigold and willow for yellows and beiges, heather for yellow. The greens were obtained by using yellow dye vats, (marigold and docken), then an iron after mordant to shift the colour to green. The iron mordant is made by leaving a rusty nail in a jar of white vinegar for a couple of weeks and then using a little of the mixture in the dye vat.

I am enjoying making these flowers as summer shines over the Isles and Shetland colour is flourishing in almost 24 hours of light each day! Simmer Dim!

Natural dyeing in the wild

Dyeing wool with marigold flowers on a wood burning stove using drift wood as fuel! 

All things natural.