The collection of natural dye materials moves with the seasons.  You must harvest fruit when it is are ripe and flowers as they bloom.

Harvesting opportunities arise quickly and are short-lived.  It is not always possible for me and maybe for you to dye straight away.  So I store the dye material away ready for a dyeing day.

I have been collecting for quite a while !  In fact I can’t really stop myself when the opportunity presents itself.

Except

I make it a rule  only to harvest any natural dye plant material if there is an abundance of the plants , flowers or berries. If I can only find one if two plants , I just walk away.

Harvesting lichens for natural dyeing

Last week in the UK the weather was windy and wet.   This week was cold and dry.  As I walked in the woods on Tuesday and there was more lichen on the ground than I have ever seen before.   Blown down from the trees in the previous weeks gales and rains.   I was overwhelmed by the quantity and variety of lichens I could collect.    It was simply a case of being in the right place at the right time.
I managed to collect some evernia prunastri or oak moss.  This will give a beautiful lilac dye if soaked in an ammonia solution.

Old mans beard or usnea.  This has antibiotic and anti fungal uses and as a dye gives beige and rusty oranges.

At the bottom is some Lobaria Pulmonaria – Lungwort.  This was once used to treat chest infections.  It can be used to dye wool orange.

All these lichens can be dried and used as natural dye material later.

Alder cones as a natural dye material

Alder cones are another very easy natural dye material to collect while out walking. I regularly come back from a walk with a pocket full of cones. I love them , they are so small and perfect. Like tinny pine cones.

Three years ago I would just have walked past them not realizing the lovely tawny brown colours, they give as a dye.

Finding sloes to use as natural dyes.

Early spring this year I went walking around the local fields checking out the blackthorn bushes in the hedges.
I was thinking ahead to when in September the fruit , sloes, would be ripe . The bushes are obvious in the early spring  as they bloom before there leaves come out.

Come the Autumn the sloes are very well hidden. As a result of my research I know which hedges to search in and I now have quite of few bags of juicy sloes my freezer . It is now just a question which wins the gin or the natural dye pot.

There are many more plants and leaves you can easily harvest during the year as natural dyes. Many of them you can dry if you are not able to use them immediately.

All free. 

The winter is quite a lean time for collecting so it time to get out my dye pots and start dyeing.  I will post my dye results here shortly.

If you want to find more out about natural dye materials I suggest reading Wild Colours by Jenny Dean , or reading her website.