Blog entry

December 11 2022

Posted by laura bellel on December 11, 2022 | 2 Comments

Madder root dye on wool yarn

Wool yarn dyed with madder.

The variety of shades makes me wish I had much more yarn and madder!

March 24 2021

Posted by laura bellel on March 24, 2021 | Add new comment

Last year's madder stalks

The bloodroot has a touch of pink this year

March 5 2020

Posted by laura bellel on March 05, 2020 | Add new comment

New batches of madder roots and onion skins soaking in the sunshine.

Checking the color of the madder brew

Hemp and indigo shibori

A bit of bloom

About to bloom!

October

Posted by laura bellel on October 17, 2019 | 2 Comments

The sweet Service-berry is beginning to glow. In every season it is a beauty.

I desided to take a little break from dyeing silk and linen. The cooler days made me turn to wool for spinning and crocheting. It's hard to decide what to make - scarves, hats, or should I dye enough to crochet a blanket....? I've said it for years, but one of these days, I'm going to try felting.

This rose reminds me of the brick-red madder shade.

Madder silks

Posted by laura bellel on May 17, 2019 | Add new comment

I've been gathering amd sorting some madder dyed silks .

Organza

Raw silk

May

Posted by laura bellel on May 08, 2019 | Add new comment

I dyed some hemp silk fabrics with madder roots and indigo. This is one of my very favorite,most intersting kinds of fabric.

This piece of hemp/silk dyed with madder seems to echo the tulip shades.

The madder patch is thriving

August sunrise and madder

Posted by laura bellel on August 20, 2018 | 1 Comment

Early morning on the back porch . The sunrises seem different lately. The angle of the light is interesting.I guess this is always true, but I'm sure noticing it a lot these days.

Interesting morning sky

As usual lately, I'm still dyeing silk threads. Before dyeing the silk is exquisite.

Dyed with madder roots. I love the wide and surprising range of warm shades from madder.

The morning's work wound up.

July

Posted by laura bellel on July 16, 2018 | 1 Comment

So far, July has been packed with projects and flowers

Indigo and cochineal shibori scarves

Hand-spun silk yarn dyed with woad

More Naturally dyed embroidery silks

Inspiration!

Warmth and inspiration!

Posted by laura bellel on April 12, 2018 | 87 Comments

bBloodroot (Sanguinaria canadensis)

Suddenly it's warm! The garden is joyful and beautiful. The back-yard colors inspire natural dyeing.

These silks were dyed with walnut hulls, coreopsis flowers, weld and indigo

Crocus

Violet shades from madder, lac and indigo

King Alfred Daffodils

Greens, yellow and blues from weld, coreopsis flowers and indigo

The very brave Scilla

Indigo

Warm morning sky

I'm very grateful for this rare, lovely and warm Spring day.

December Silks

Posted by laura bellel on December 28, 2017 | Add new comment

December has been filled with beauty and busy-ness. Happily, I've been able to squeeze in some of my favorite projects, including the dyeing of more silk threads.

After soaking in alum