Meet my felt kitties, my newest product, for sale on-line!
Green living, existing in harmony with nature, is the essence of my business Shades of Nature. Welcome to Shady Grove Farm and studios, where flowers are used to make dyes, mushrooms become sheets of paper, fiber is turned into cloth, and the beauty of the landscape is preserved in distinctive paintings.
My eight alpaca, five angora rabbits and locally grown sheep and llama, provide luxurious fiber in a variety of colours for dyeing and spinning. I combine the natural fleece colours with shades from my dye pots to make unique variegated and semi-solid yarns.
Much of the dyestuff I use grows in my gardens or wild on my property. I shop for the natural dyes such as cochineal and indigo that I cannot produce myself. Plant based dyes are complex mixes of colour, affected by growing, harvesting and storing conditions, as well as extraction techniques. The sometimes unpredictable variations add to the rare beauty of the natural colours. Before dyeing I treat the natural fibers with an alum based mordant solution to make the colours as light and wash fast as possible. The mordant helps bind the dye molecules to the fiber. Protecting natural dyed fabrics from bright sunlight will help preserve them. These organic colours can all be hand washed in lukewarm water.
After I extract the dye most of the cooked plant material heads to the compost pile, eventually returning to the garden. Several, such as onion skins and certain mushrooms and lichens, are processed further and live on as handmade paper used in my artwork! The entire process, from raising fiber animals and dye plants to dyeing and weaving, is tactile and satisfying. It keeps me connected to our planet earth, and to our ancestors who first discovered the amazing secret colours hidden in plants.
Follow my new blog which will chronicle spinning, plant dyeing, weaving, painting, gardening and other adventures.
© 2010 Shades of Nature
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