Meadow flower dyeing

After spending multiple occasions wading through the wildflowers in London Fields in the pouring rain we finally put our harvest to good use this weekend. We held a pop-up dye workshop between the park and Broadway Market catching people reveling in the glorious sunshine that Saturday brought. We showed people an ancient Japanese technique for natural dyeing called shibori where you use folding, clamping, twisting and other creative means to create a pattern. (Tie-dying is a type of shibori). We created a dye vat using the flowers from the meadow, mostly coreopsis and zinnias. 

Naturally dyed bunting

The dye vat with coreopsis and zinnia meadown flowers

Some shibori creations from the day drying in the sunshine

Picking flowers in the rain

A table full of colourful dye plants

Suited and booted this morning we met over at London Fields to collect some of the wildflowers which are not only pretty, but also plant gold for any garden dyer (a person who uses plants to naturally dye fabric). After getting permission from the council, who will be scything the wild flowers later in the week - we set out to gather our harvest. We will be using the flowers for various community projects that we are working on and in workshops which teach people about the process of natural dyeing. Despite getting soaked in the process and shouted at by a passer-by who assumed we were plant thieves, my house is now covered in a rainbow of zinnias, coreopsis, african marigolds and cosmos. A great way to brighten up a gloomy Monday morning!

African marigold, coreopsis, cosmos and cinnia (clockwise from top left)