Chocolate Orange Silk Velvet Scarf Natural Dyes and Botanically Printed with Leaves

Description

Chocolate Orange silk velvet scarf which I first dyed with coreopsis flowers grown and harvested from my dye garden. I used leaves from macleaya cordata, cercis, aquilegia, sweet cicely , virginia creeper and more plus some dyers’ chamomile and coreopsis flowers. There is a lot of colour in this scarf as the varied leaf prints are revealed when the light catches them.

Material: silk/viscose velvet
Measurements:130cms x 35cms

My Process:
Natural dyeing requires very careful preparation of the fabric, to remove anything leftover from the manufacturing process, and to then treat it so that the dye colour will be long lasting. I use some powdered dye extracts as well as dyes from my own dye garden and surrounding plants. I regularly forage for leaves on my walks and from my own garden plants which I’ve selected for their printing properties. My mental map of my local area is formed around the trees and plants I have come to know and love, whether in car park, on a roundabout, deep in the forest, or outside the local scout hut! Fabric and leaves together are steamed for one to two hours to extract the pigments from the leaves and flowers leaving their beautifully detailed shapes and veining immortalised in the fabric.

Naturally dyed fabrics will fade when exposed to strong sunlight so to keep the colours bright, it is best to store your scarf somewhere away from direct light.

The colours are also best preserved by using a natural soap for washing, certainly don’t use anything that involves chemical ‘brighteners’.

Hand wash or gentle machine wash, then iron whilst still damp for best results.