on my weekend away earlier this month, we had a lovely morning tea with em's very crafty granny-in-law. we talked about quilting, papermaking, pottery and she showed me the most amazing blanket, crocheted in gorgeous shades of reds, raspberry pinks, yellows and browns. she told me the yarn had been dyed with eucalyptus and i was totally intrigued. i love dying fabric and have been interested in using natural dyes for a couple of years now but it all seemed like a bit too much work. i did some quick research on eucalyptus dying and was particularly interested in this page that talked about not using any mordant at all and still getting good lightfastness. the results mentioned were all on knitting wool but i thought i'd give it a try on fabric anyway, without any huge expectations. a walk through the local park yielded a good sized bag of fallen eucalypt debris. i filled two large tins with equal parts water and plant material, one with broken up pieces of bark and one with broken up dried leaves and whole gumnuts, and left them to sit in a sunny spot for about a week, stirring every now and then. on friday i enlisted mae's help to strain the leaves, bark and gumnuts out and pour the deeply coloured water back into the containers. i added scraps of natural linen, raw silk and white cotton and left them immersed overnight. on saturday we fished them out and i was completely amazed by the colours that emerged. i was expecting some degree of red but got shades of purple from the eucalyptus bark and an array of greys from the leaves and gumnuts - sooooo much better than i could have hoped for! the white cotton had the lightest results and i was expecting the raw silk to be the deepest colour (something i read about animal proteins accepting dye better) but surprisingly, a thick, coarsely woven linen took up the most colour. i have no idea how these would hold up to a traditional wash in the machine (will test it out soon) but the colour held through a thorough scrub in cold water to remove any bits of plant gunk so i'm hopeful. i absolutely LOVE the colours and am super excited to experiment further, the element of surprise is just too good. this little exercise comprises so many of my loves so well - nature, foraging, dyeing, fabric and colour. excellent.

I’ve just released my new ebook all about eco-printing so I thought this might be a good time to write a quick post about the leaf that started it all for me, eucalyptus! I first learned about eco-printing in my natural dyes and weaving class in college over ten years ago. I saw an example of eucalyptus leaves printed on silk and I was shocked to see they printed a beautiful orange. It took me many years and lots of twists and turns before I finally got a chance to try the method myself and when

Colors from one of my most abundant dye sources

Here's some pieces from my dye pots lately. I created this piece using fresh eucalyptus leaves and the green unopened seedpods that had fallen (due to a lot of wind and rain) on my dad's driveway. I started thinking about a piece of cloth my mum had, with lots of little bumps all over it. A Shibori

I’ve just released my new ebook all about eco-printing so I thought this might be a good time to write a quick post about the leaf that started it all for me, eucalyptus! I first learned about eco-printing in my natural dyes and weaving class in college over ten years ago. I saw an example of eucalyptus leaves printed on silk and I was shocked to see they printed a beautiful orange. It took me many years and lots of twists and turns before I finally got a chance to try the method myself and when

Eco-printing on cotton can be a bit more fiddly than eco-printing on wool or silk. Cellulose fibres don’t take up plant dyes as easily as protein fibres do. I have spent about 5 years experim…

Dyeing with rusty things is such a satisfying part of natural and botanical dye, and a great way to extend the possibilities in your dye pot. I use it in a few different ways, and I wanted to share some of my outcomes with you, as well as share how to make rust water or how to do iron after dye.

Here's some pieces from my dye pots lately. I created this piece using fresh eucalyptus leaves and the green unopened seedpods that had fallen (due to a lot of wind and rain) on my dad's driveway. I started thinking about a piece of cloth my mum had, with lots of little bumps all over it. A Shibori

Anyone that knows me, knows that I am not the biggest user of colour in my work. As Rei Kawakubo said ‘I work in three shades of black’. So as much as I loved the idea of natural dyeing, I never really used it much for my clothing and textile designs because I couldn’t achieve the dark and moody shades I wanted. Natural dyeing was more of a fun experimentation on the side when I wasn’t after a certain look. As an Australian, the obvious choice for a dye substance is eucalyptus leaves. Where I live, there are trees coming out the wazoo...

[responsivevoice_button] Way back in 2016, when I had just begun selling clothes under the label Gumnut Magic, I had a lot of interest from other natural dyers about my eco-print technique. Back th…

I had a stem of dried eucalyptus leaves waiting to be used, so I decided to experiment with bundle dyeing for the first time. I used bamboo fabric that was pretreated in soya milk and left to cure for around a week. My son loved laying the leaves onto the fabric as I rolled up...

Natural dyeing is an ancient tradition & techniques behind this art hardly vary globally. Read the article to know more about natural dyeing than most people.

How to dye with eucalyptus - a natural dye experiment

Before I played with wool I grew plants for a living, there were a lot of hardy exotics in my life and I still occasionally spend the odd morning at the nursery talking about plant production and happened to notice …

Dyeing with rusty things is such a satisfying part of natural and botanical dye, and a great way to extend the possibilities in your dye pot. I use it in a few different ways, and I wanted to share some of my outcomes with you, as well as share how to make rust water or how to do iron after dye.

I’ve just released my new ebook all about eco-printing so I thought this might be a good time to write a quick post about the leaf that started it all for me, eucalyptus! I first learned about eco-printing in my natural dyes and weaving class in college over ten years ago. I saw an example of eucalyptus leaves printed on silk and I was shocked to see they printed a beautiful orange. It took me many years and lots of twists and turns before I finally got a chance to try the method myself and when

Catechu, st.John's wort, Carrot tops, madder root and eucalyptus. How to dye your clothing sustainably. Eco friendly fashion for a colourful wardrobe.