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

Recent Posts

  • Dyeing with nettles
  • How to dye even colours (and why you might not want to)
  • Avocado Dye : FAQs / Top tips for pink
  • New napkins and thoughts on creating less waste
  • A shift in mind and space – what’s the future of the magazine?

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  • I’ve been dyeing a pair of pyjama bottoms this week in avocado dye. These are handmade organic pj bottoms from @allthatisbraw. I can’t wait to wear them when they are finished ☺️💞 . Look at the intensity of colour from just 8 avocado stones/pits. I did 3 extractions in water and combined them to make this pot of concentrated dye. I could have carried on.. the stones are so potent and can be reused multiple times to make more dye. . I put the stones into the dye pot whole and they gradually break apart in the water as they soften. As the dye oxidises, it becomes darker and pinker. If you’d like to learn how to dye with avocados, take a look my blog post with my top tips (on www.rebeccadesnos.com) 🥑, and I also have a book (and eBook) with my methods ~ it’s called Botanical Colour at your Fingertips. . I think the next stage for these pyjama bottoms will be to paint a pattern with iron water. I love the colour as it is, but I’m so tempted to take things a bit further and create a pattern. Iron water darkens the pink into a grey/purple, and you can simply paint it on with a brush to make patterns. Maybe some dots.. or stripes.. or circles. I just can’t decide, so we’ll have to see! I’ll share the process on my Stories when I do it 😊💚 . Do you have any projects on the go at the moment? What are you dyeing/sewing/making?
  • Flower hammering 🌿💫 Quite a noisy activity 😆 with very delicate results 💕 . Today I’m talking more about this over on my other page @plants_are_magic. There’s a tutorial for this in the latest edition of my magazine: Plants Are Magic volume 3. The step-by-step is written by the incredible @samorn_sanixay. You can order the magazine on my website www.rebeccadesnos.com 🌺 . This technique works with lots of types of plants. Here I used Dyers Knotweed leaves (indigo) and viola flowers. The indigo gradually oxidised and turned blue - can you see the darker patches on the prints? 💙 It’s the first year that I’ve grown indigo and embarrassingly I haven’t got round to dyeing with the leaves yet! But this little hammering experiment was a lovely way to test the colour in the leaves.. I’ll print on a larger piece of fabric next time 💙 . Have you tried flower hammering before❓ I feel like I’m quite late to the party with this, but I’ve fallen in love right away 🌸
  • Doing some test dips in my avocado dye pot 🥑 . I used 8 avocado stones for the dye pot and it’s so pink! I’ve actually reused the stones in a new pot of water as they have lots of dye potential left in them. I’m going to try a third extraction with the stones too.. they just keep giving more and more! . You can find my full dyeing method in my dye book (and eBook) Botanical Colour at your Fingertips 💓 and I also have a blogpost on my website with some tips for making pinker avocado dye. . After dyeing with just avocado skins the last few times, it’s lovely to experience even brighter pinks from the stones/pits. These stones have been drying out for the last couple of months in my kitchen. They can be frozen, too, if you prefer, but drying works well for me. I find that as long as they’re not shrivelled up and black then they still make good dye. . I’m going to dye a pair of white pyjama bottoms from @allthatisbraw in this dye. The only dilemma is deciding on the pattern! I think I’ll try some kind of loose scrunch dyeing and then maybe do some painting with iron water afterwards. . Are you as indecisive as I am when it comes to what to dye and how you’ll dye it❓ I’ve been thinking about these pyjama bottoms for weeks and I still can’t quite make up my mind 🙈
  • This is what I found myself making late last night: a little fabric coiled mat that will soon (hopefully) grow into a basket. It feels wonderful to be using my naturally dyed yarn for something. I’d planned to weave with it, but for now this feels perfect. It’s like I was meant to be doing this all along. . The grey was dyed with acorns and iron, the purple is from avocado skins and iron. Next I’ll add the yellow which was dyed with pomegranate skins and then I’ll use the avocado skin pink yarn. . The yarn was all pretreated with soya milk using my usual instructions in my book (Botanical Colour at your Fingertips). Once the milk and excess dye is rinsed out, the yarn is beautifully soft and silky. Linen is such a lovely fibre to work with! Strong and smooth at the same time. . I’m wondering whether to write a blog post with a step-by-step for making these little mats/bowls. Is that something you might be interested in? I’m just making it up as I go for now. Fingers crossed it works out as I hope and then I’ll show you how to make one if you’re keen 💛 Let me know ☺️
  • This little basket has been keeping my hands busy these past couple of days. . I felt like I needed a project on the go and I was stroking my linen yarn that I dyed... I was planning on saving the yarn for weaving but to be honest I don’t have the time or energy to begin something new and slightly unknown. I just wanted to begin using it right now.. . Then this little basket just kind of happened almost by itself at about 11pm one evening. It’s what I’ve been longing to make all along and I didn’t realise. I made a few baskets a couple of years ago and thankfully my hands remembered what to do! . Making coiled raffia baskets is so simple and really meditative. Somehow I have no sense of the passing time whilst making them and I’m left feeling soothed afterwards. . The linen yarn works nicely with the raffia. Can you see the sheen on the yarn? It’s so gloriously strong and lustrous. The pink is dyed with avocado skins and the grey with acorns and iron (to shift the brown tannins to grey). The grey looks almost blue next to the pink. . Do you turn to crafting to help you relax? What’s your go-to thing? I’ve been trying to avoid picking up my phone to check emails and messages all day long... I find it leaves me feeling a bit anxious and unsettled. I’d rather have something else to pick up during those spare moments — something that doesn’t rely on technology. Do you ever feel the same? 💛
  • One of the questions I’m asked most often is, “Do natural dyes last?”. The answer is yes, natural dyes can last well 💚 . The whole story is a bit more detailed as there are various factors at play. It depends on the dyes you use, how you’ve prepared your fibres before dyeing and how well it’s been dyed. This is the focus of my book Botanical Colour at your Fingertips 💌 . Plant colours are alive in a way that synthetic dyes are not, so they need to be looked after carefully.. washed gently and generally not kept in direct sunlight. Some colours will shift or mellow over time, just like other things in nature. Other dyes can be treated more harshly and they keep their vibrance. . All the yarn here is dyed with plants that I’ve chosen specifically for their colourfastness properties. . From L-R along the top I’ve used, avocado skins + iron (purple), acorns + iron (grey), peachy pink (avocado skins). The second row L-R is avocado skins + pomegranate skins (peach), avocado skins (darker pink), pomegranate skins (yellow and green-yellow). . You can dye with natural dyes and feel confident that the colours will last — we just need to plan carefully which dyes to use. . What are some of your favourite colourfast and less permanent dyes?❓How do you feel about transient/impermanent beauty❓🌸
  • A botanical mandala 🍂 . I was talking about creating mandalas over on my second IG page @plants_are_magic the other day. ‘Botanical mandalas’ is a recurring topic in the last two issues of my magazine. You can find all 3 issues of Plants Are Magic magazine here - www.rebeccadesnos.com 💌 . With the leaves beginning to turn, it felt like the perfect moment to make an early autumn mandala ☺️ . It was soothing to place the leaves in a circle and the crunchy textures are gloriously tactile. The baby was sleeping on the bed just next to me so this was a real moment of peace ☺️ I’ve saved all the leaves and I’m planning on making some play dough creatures with the children next 🍂 . Do you make mandalas? Do you make them with plants or draw them? It seems like a lovely thing to mark the beginning of each season, don’t you think? 🌱🌻🍂 Just a handful of leaves is enough to make one. Take a few moments to arrange them in a pattern and you’ll find it soothing 💛 Tell me all about your mandala experiences 💫
  • I’ve been dyeing yarn over the last few weeks and I’m so thrilled to show you the little line up of colours 💕 This is handspun linen yarn that I bought from @yarnyarnfiber. It’s beautifully tactile and strong with a gorgeous sheen ☺️ . I’ll tell you a bit about my dyeing process. If you’ve read my book Botanical Colour at your Fingertips you’ll know that my method for preparing yarn for dyeing is similar to fabric. I prewash the yarn then soak in a bucket of diluted milk. It’s important to dilute the milk well to get an even distribution of soy protein across the fibres 💚 The yarn is dried and then dipped a couple more times into the milk. Then dried and left for a week before dyeing. . From L - R, the colours are from: acorns + iron {grey) acorns + more iron {dark grey} avocado skins + iron {purple} peach {avocado skins + pomegranate skins} dusty pink {avocado skins} yellow {pomegranate skins in an aluminium pot} greeny yellow/tan {pom. skins + stainless steel pot} . I hope those notes help you if you’d like to dye similar colours 🌿 . To modify the first three hanks of yarn with iron, first I dyed them to my desired depth of colour. Then I prepared a bowl of iron water and whilst wearing gloves, dipped the wet yarn into the bowl of water and the colour instantly shifted. . To make iron water, simply put rusty bits of metal into a jar of water (and vinegar, if you like - to make the process quicker) and stir every few days.. the water will turn a rusty colour and then you pour a bit out and dilute with water to make your iron bath. The instructions are all in my eBook Botanical Colour at your Fingertips. I will be honest and say that I don’t have a rust jar on the go right now as I don’t have any bits of metal! I would happily receive rusty metal donations if anyone is willing to share 😂🙏 I’ve been using the tiniest sprinkle of ferrous sulphate crystals in a bowl of water, and that does the trick too. But it’s sooo satisfying to make your own rust water👌 . I’ve definitely caught the yarn-dyeing bug 😍 I’m looking forward to weaving with my yarn. What do you make with your yarn? Do you have any yarn-dyeing tips you’d be happy to share? Would love to hear💚

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