A year in the dye garden

Behind the textile room there is a strip of ground no bigger than two parking spaces. Four years ago it was gravel. Now it grows most of the colour we use in our natural dyeing classes.

Spring: sowing

We sow woad for blues, weld for bright yellows and dyer’s chamomile for softer golds. Madder, which gives us reds and pinks, takes three years before its roots are ready, so it gets its own bed and a lot of patience.

Lifting cloth out of the indigo vat

Summer: picking and drying

Weld is cut just as it flowers. We hang it in bundles in the drying room, and for a few weeks the whole studio smells faintly of hay.

• Weld: yellows, and greens over blue

• Woad: pale to mid blue

• Madder root: corals, reds and pinks

• Dyer’s chamomile: warm golds

Autumn and winter: the dye pots

Most of our dyeing happens in the colder months, once the harvest is dry and stored. Wool and silk take colour most readily; linen and cotton need a little more preparation first.

“

The same plant gives a different colour every year. I’ve stopped trying to repeat it and started enjoying it.

Ada Okafor, Dyer and weaver

Weaving with garden-dyed yarn

In class you dye a set of skeins from the garden and take home a small sample book with notes on every pot.