~ It’s that time of year, my favorite time of year, when it’s the beginning of a new school year. Time to get out the sweaters, eat crunchy, ripe apples, and carve pumpkins. The air is brisk and invigorating. It’s a season of purpose and activity and I am always filled with motivation to create beauty during the Autumn.
When I was the Handwork teacher at a Waldorf school, I plant-dyed many skeins of wool yarn used in the Waldorf curriculum teaching fiber arts for grades 1-8 every year during August. I have always felt that the care, intention, and creativity used to coax the colors into the wool made the aesthetics of the students’ knitted and crocheted projects even more beautiful. This year, I had the opportunity to play with natural dyes again in October. I loved creating color during the cooler weather. I taught my sister and brother-in-law how to dye with natural dyes over 3 days. It was a blast to spend time with them and do a project outside, while social distancing! I highly recommend it!
We dyed silk fabric and yarn that will become craft projects. The first day was spent mordanting; a process that increases colorfastness and attracts dye into the fiber and makes more intense colors. On the second and third days we dyed with avocadoes, cochineal, marigolds, and indigo. We ended with beautiful sunset colors, blue greens and indigo blues. These projects will be so special, unique and made with love. And we have wonderful memories of our time together creating!!
Visit us again at Head, Heart & Handwork (www.headhearthandwork.com), for more blogs about natural dyeing, Waldorf inspired crafts, and the value of doing hand crafts. I invite you to check out our website for the current craft projects and instructional videos. This is an excellent resource for a Homeschooling curriculum.