Rebecca Desnos

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30th May 201516th June 2018

Painting with rusty water

These simple patterns were created by painting with rusty iron water. It’s so much fun seeing the water bleed across the fabric and change colour!

Iron Painting Pattern
by RobFOSDye experiments

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Dyeing with Mahonia berries
Triple bundle dyeing with eucalyptus leaves

My books on botanical dyeing…

How to dye fabric and yarn…

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Plants Are Magic magazine…

The {independently published} magazine for makers, dreamers & plant lovers…

Recent Posts

  • Minimalism as a crafter & Simplifying our spaces
  • Carve your own beads for dyeing
  • How to dye paper with natural dyes
  • The simplest paper mobile
  • The Nature Creative – An interview with The Dogwood Dyer

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  • I’ve just published a new blog post. It’s about decluttering and simplifying our craft spaces. If you fancy a read, pop over to rebeccadesnos.com/blog 🌱 . I’ve been on a decluttering spree since early this year. I’m reevaluating everything and really thinning down our possessions. My aim is to simplify our lives and make our home environment feel more peaceful to live in. . Are you doing something similar? . I used to view cleaning as a chore, but I’ve come round to the idea that it’s an essential part of taking care of ourselves. We deserve to live in a clean and tidy home. The time we spend cleaning and organising is important for our wellbeing. Also we’re not obligated to keep hold of something we were given that we don’t want anymore — we don’t owe anything to anyone. . I’ve been tackling my craft boxes these past couple of weeks. I realised how little I really want to keep! There will be many more trips to the charity shop and recycling banks. . What’s your take on this? Do you find your craft supplies overwhelming and want to reduce things down? Or are you slowly working through your materials to use things up over time?
  • I’ve been sorting through the cupboards at home - doing a major declutter - and I decided to add this avocado pink scarf into my wardrobe. I was going to give it away as a gift at some point, but I just can’t part with it. It feels too much like “me” and I need to keep it. It reminds me why I started natural dyeing in the first place ✨ This colour is one of my favourites 🥑💓 . 🖤 The grey linen cardigan is from @notperfectlinen and was originally white and then dyed with acorns and iron to make a really wearable shade of grey. . 🍂The wooden necklace was dyed with pomegranate skins, avocado skins, black tea and acorns + iron. My eBook Botanical Dyes on Wood will show you how! . 🌿The scarf was made with organic cotton muslin fabric from @greenfibres. You can get 10% off your fabric from @greenfibres with the discount code DESNOS10 😘 (*I earn a small commission per order that uses this code). I like to simply cut the fabric up and let the edges gently fray. It makes the perfect scarf every time. . I’m going to continue with my sorting at home this weekend and move onto the kitchen next. Amazingly, we still have way too much stuff 😬 and it causes me stress as I feel like I spend my life cleaning. Less of everything will mean that less things can become untidy and dirty. I’m wondering why we have so many glasses, for example! It just makes a huge pile of washing up by the end of the day.. surely one glass each is enough and we wash through the day?! I’m going to tackle the big job of the kitchen and think about what we truly need and what is actually clutter. Anyone else going through the same shift at the moment? . Do you have any plans for the weekend? 🌿
  • I popped back to my gorse-picking spot this week 🌼 I’ll dry these petals and add them to the bag of flowers I have. Some flowers give better colours fresh, but these seem to dry well and still make a bright colour ✨ For some time I’ve been thinking of starting some kind of quilt project where I stitch dyed swatches together and embroider the name of the plant on the fabric. What do you think? I’d like to use the same type of fabric for each square so need to prepare a big piece. Then I’ll cut it up into squares (or maybe a range of shapes to make a more irregular pattern) and have a stack of fabric ready to drop into dye pots. The quilt will be a record of the local dye plants through the seasons 🌿🍂🌾 Maybe I’ll magically find the time this weekend to prep the fabric... I’ll let you know 😉 Do you have any suggestions for the quilt I’d like to make? Have you done anything similar? Join in with this idea if you like the sound of it 🌿
  • I used up the last of my nettle dye by dip dyeing the end of this scarf 🌿 I’ve been building up layers of colour on this scarf each time I have some left over dye. Also, this nettle dye just seems to get darker and darker as it oxidises! This fabric is organic cotton muslin from @greenfibres - probably my all time favourite type of fabric and I’ve been using it to dye scarves for years 🌿 Remember you can get 10% off the “fabric and raw materials” section on the @greenfibres website with the code: DESNOS10. *For transparency: I receive a small commission from orders made with this code. I’m so happy to be able to share this code with you as @greenfibres has been my favourite fabric shop for years 💓 This scarf actually started off as a bit of an accident when I spilt some dye on the carpet 🙊 and I used it to mop up the liquid. But it was a happy accident, as the carpet is fine 😅 and the scarf has some lovely patterning and colours. Have you made any happy mistakes whilst dyeing or crafting?
  • Have you ever wondered where I buy my fabric? I have something special to share with you today 😘🌿 It’s no secret that @greenfibres is my favourite shop - I’ve been a loyal supporter of theirs for almost a decade! 💗 A couple of weeks ago I contacted them and asked if they could offer me a discount code to share with you, and they liked the idea! So I’m sharing it with you today 💌 Help yourself to 10% off the “fabric and raw materials” section on the @greenfibres website with the code: DESNOS10. *For transparency: I receive a small commission from orders made with this code. My favourite @greenfibres fabric is the Loomstate Organic Cotton Muslin. Once washed, it transforms into a beautifully floaty, crinkled texture. It’s perfect for scarves ✨ The fabric in the photo is dyed with the following plants: ▫️top row: goldenrod, pomegranate skins, tea. ▫️second row: purple deadnettles, gorse, stinging nettles. ▫️avocado skins, more avocado skins, stinging nettles. I pretreat my fabric in soya milk as I show you in my eBook & paperback Botanical Colour at your Fingertips. Then it takes plant dyes beautifully. Do you also dye cellulose fabric? What’s your favourite type of fabric to dye? 💚
  • Giveaway closed. The winner was @dottydelightful. Thanks to everyone who entered 💓 Giveaway time 🌸🍃 This is a “just because” giveaway - I simply felt like doing a giveaway this week 😊 Thanks for all of your lovely messages and support over these past few months. One person will be chosen at random to receive the following prizes: ▫️a plant dyed necklace: wooden beads dyed with avocado skins, eucalyptus leaves and acorns + iron. ▫️a copy of my natural dye book Botanical Colour at your Fingertips. ▫️all 3 volumes of my independent magazine ~ Plants Are Magic. To enter the competition, please do the following: 1️⃣ Follow both of my IG accounts: @rebeccadesnos and @plants_are_magic. 2️⃣ Like this photo and tag 3 friends. Each tag will be an entry. Keep tagging more friends for more entries. 3️⃣ You’re welcome to enter over on this photo on @plants_are_magic too and tag as many friends as you like. The giveaway will close on Sunday 31 March. One winner will be randomly chosen from all the entries across both of my IG accounts (@rebeccadesnos and @plants_are_magic), and I will announce the winner next week. This competition isn’t associated with Instagram. This competition is open worldwide 🌎🌍🌏. Thanks for entering! Best of luck 🌿💓
  • Some recent colour tests from local dye plants 🌿🌼 These muted colours are part of my local colour palette. We all have a different range of plants on our doorstep and our local colours will be unique ✨ At the top there’s a warm beige from purple dead nettles. This is the dullest shade out of the three plants and I was surprised I didn’t get a brighter yellow like last time. The grey is from nettles. It’s a subtle shade with a hint of green. I always wonder if the natural iron content in nettles plays a part in the grey colour developing.. The initial dye colour in the pot is yellow/brown and the grey slowly develops after soaking the leaves in the dye bath over night. The golden yellow at the bottom is from gorse flowers. This is the brightest shade I’ve ever made from gorse and it was a real treat! I collected the tiniest handful of petals last week but I’ll go back to the gorse bush later this week for more ✨ This colour is too good to miss out on! As always, the fabric is plant based/cellulose only (organic cotton and bamboo) and the fabric was soaked and pretreated in a bucket of diluted soya milk. I dyed all of these samples using the method that’s shown step by step in my book/eBook ~ Botanical Colour at your Fingertips 💌 Have you thought about recording your local colours on cloth? 🌿 It’s a lovely thing to do throughout the year.
  • It’s nettle season again 😍🌿 I’m thrilled that my local nettles made a grey shade again this year. It’s a mysterious shade of grey-with-a-hint-of-green. Later on in the year the nettles seem to make beige and brown shades, so I’m enjoying this colour now ✨ Last year I wrote a blog post about nettle dyeing, with a dyeing tutorial for getting this colour. I can’t guarantee that your local nettles will give the same shade, but I find that low and slow heating, followed by a long soak helps develop the best colours. Pop across to my blog to find out more: www.rebeccadesnos.com/blog - it’s a few posts down from the top, so scroll down. It’s also nice to add a photo to the hashtag that I started a few years ago ~ #mylocaldyeplants 😊 I think that nettle is possibly my favourite local plant 💓 When you dye with your local plants, remember to use this tag! What’s your favourite local dye plant? Or are there too many to choose from? 💚

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