This last week was full of flowers.
Dahlias on Dahlias on Dahlias.
So. Many. Flowers.
While there was plenty of planning, organizing and researching done this last week there was also a good deal of foraging and collecting accomplished before the torrential downpours that will be all to normal once again. I harvested plenty of Lichen to experiment with, made dye from left over neighbors grapes and started experimenting with carrots and cabbage.
But the highlight was flowers. I ran out of room in my house. My floors are covered. My counters look like a garden. My makeshift dryers are stacked and my freezer is overflowing with color. The problem is I still can’t seem to figure out a way to extract those dark, full, powerful colors that those magenta and red Dahlias hold. They stain my fingers purple, and after bringing them to a simmer the dye bath (water) turns a dark purple or red. But the best color I have gotten out of them is a very, very bright yellow. I am now experimenting with freezing and drying the Dahlias while they wait for me to figure out what step is next. I am going to explore more with using the petals raw and pounding out the color with a mallet as well as some eco-prints. But this is time consuming and not exactly the outcome I intended, but I think I have to dive into this to better understand what is capable with flowers, pigment and fibers.
With flowers I feel like I am racing against the clock to capture and transfer there color. I found myself wandering gardens staring at fallen petals thinking.. ‘what a waste’ I could have used those. But that garden will use them, and that’s what it’s all about, mother nature has its cycles worked out, we just need to now.