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…

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Plants Are Magic magazine…

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

Recent Posts

  • It’s here! Plants Are Magic vol. 4 (+ bonus recipe)
  • How to make watercolour paint from petals
  • Dyeing with berries
  • Minimalism as a crafter & Simplifying our spaces
  • Carve your own beads for dyeing

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  • I’ve been dying to show you these colours I made from flowers... the tutorial is in the new Plants Are Magic magazine (volume 4) which is out today! 🥳🌿✨ . You can order the printed magazine on Amazon, and the digital version on my website 💌 . I used dried African Violet flowers for the first three shades on the paper. It’s one of those house plants that seems to thrive and keep flowering no matter what 🙏 The flowers are pH sensitive and with a little lemon juice and baking soda, you can shift the colours. Now, whenever my African Violet flowers shrivel up, I collect them in an envelope 💜😁 . The other colours are from coreopsis flowers and also marigold petals. The dark red variety of marigold made an olive green! Later that day, the bowl of dye with petals darkened to a brown, but if you catch it early, you can make green 💚 . This is just one of the ideas in the latest issue of Plants Are Magic. There are some amazing contributors in this issue. It’s been made with lots of love and care 🌿 I hope you enjoy it 💕 Please let me know if you read it. I’d love to hear your thoughts 😘
  • If you’re on my mailing list, I sent you a code for 20% off all my eBooks.. so check your inbox (or junk mail 😉). If you’re not on my mailing list yet, sign up and you’ll receive your discount code in your inbox right away. It’s valid until 19 August. The next Plants Are Magic magazine is almost finished 🥳🌿 I’m reading through the second proof copy today! I thought it would be a nice time to offer a discount on all the past editions of the magazine so you can catch up on those before volume 4 is released 😘 The 20% discount also applies to my botanical dye eBooks: 🌱Botanical Colour at your Fingertips 🍂Botanical Dyes on Wood I’ll keep you updated about the next Plants Are Magic magazine. I’m so excited to share it with you soon! x
  • This afternoon I did some spur-of-the-moment dyeing with the Japanese indigo plants that I’ve been growing on my balcony this summer. I’ve shared the full process in my Stories and saved the videos in a highlight 💚 . Also there’s a blog post on my website from last year with the full method written out step-by-step. It’s called: Fresh leaf indigo dyeing - The salt rub method. . To dye with fresh leaves like this, you can simply add salt and scrunch the leaves in your hands. The salt breaks down the leaves and they become juicy. Then I dabbed the juicy leaves onto the fabric and made an organic mottled pattern. It’s seriously so much fun! . Now I’ll wait for a few days before rinsing it... You’ll be the first to see the final result ✨ . Japanese indigo is incredible to dye with. The traditional way is to ferment the leaves and make a dye vat. This salt rub method is instant fun... just what I needed this afternoon! . If you’d like to grow these plants, look for Persicaria tinctoria seeds or seedlings. When you cut the stems, you can put them in water and they sprout roots and make new plants. If we all lived closer, then I’d give you my baby plants 😘 . Have you done any spur-of-the-moment dyeing or crafting lately?
  • Today is the last day to enter the giveaway where one of the prizes is a copy of my natural book 💚 Take a look at the previous post on my grid and enter 😘
  • Giveaway now closed! Thanks for entering 💚 The winner is @emmyyy. Congratulations! . Hello lovely friends! I have a beautiful giveaway for you with one of the prizes being my botanical dye book, along with several other incredible gifts from the most enchanting feeds! . 🌿One winner will be chosen, and will win all the goodies each of us contributed. Swipe left to see the images of the gifts. . 🌵To enter: simply follow all the feeds below (we will check to make sure and please no spam accounts) & comment below when you have done so🙏🏻 . . MUST FOLLOW . @novembersage @tierrasagradaa @plants_are_magic @themoon_journal @rebeccadesnos @wild.nocturna . . . 🌿WINNER WILL BE CHOSEN NEXT WEEK🌵Best of luck!
  • I’ve just been to the park to gather a bowlful of nettles for some dyeing 🌿✨ If you’d like to know more, then check out the blog post on my website with my nettle dyeing tips (it’s from last year, so scroll back a couple of pages). . Picking plants is such a conversation starter 😄 Some people stopped to tell me about the watercress that used to grow near to this area about 100 years ago. I had no idea! Last week someone stopped to tell me about the benefits of drinking nettle tea. People love to share knowledge and where I live, it’s one of the only times that strangers talk 😂 . Have you made friends with someone over plants before? Or had any interesting conversations?
  • I’ve been out on my balcony prepping some clothing for dyeing 🌿💚 . After washing the clothing, the next step in my process is to soak the items in diluted soya (soy) milk. Soy protein acts as a binder: the protein helps the botanical dyes bond to the cellulose fibres. . You can find the full method in my first book Botanical Colour at your Fingertips 🌿 (available as an eBook on my website and paperback on Amazon). . After 12 hours (or probably a bit longer - I’ll wait until I get up tomorrow morning), I’ll squeeze out the milk in the fabric and let the pieces dry, then do a couple more dips in the diluted milk solution. . Then after waiting around a week, I’ll begin dyeing these pieces. There are a couple of hemp tops and also some white underwear that was kindly sent to me by @organicbasics. I can’t wait to dye some underwear with plant dyes 😍 . When I start dyeing these pieces in a few days I’ll take you along on the journey 💚 I can’t wait to begin! . Do you have a dye pot (or other project) on the go at the moment? 🌾
  • I had lots of fun making paint from petals this morning. These are coreopsis flowers (“Early Sunrise” variety) that are growing in a pot on my balcony 💛 . There’s a blog post up on my website with the full tutorial — I promise it’s so quick and simple! To read it, head over to www.rebeccadesnos.com/blog. . This is one of those easy projects that is so satisfying ☺️ I whipped up these paints before lunch and had fun painting some patterns. Each of the colours are from different pH levels. The red was made by adding baking soda, and amazingly this shade darkened dramatically through the day. The latest photos are on my blog and you can see just how rich and dark the paint became! . Let me know if you give the petal paint method a try 🌼

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