Today, our volunteer Cerys led our first Natural Plant Dyes Workshop at our community site.

Cerys and the group first discussed the different types of fabrics used in dyeing - plant, animal and synthetic based. We had decided to use some plant based, cotton fabric for our activity today as it can usually take dyeing well.

Then we discussed what other things can affect the dyeing process such as the pH levels in the water. Cerys demonstrated this by adding lemon juice (acid) and then Bicarbonate of Soda (alkaline) to some jars of water that she'd soaked red cabbage in. We watched as the water changed colour!

Cerys also introduced some techniques used to prepare fabrics for dyeing and for colour fixing such as mordants.

Last week Cerys prepared and soaked some cherry tree bark for our workshop and today we heated it ready for dyeing some fabric. The cotton has been left to stew and we will return to it at our next session.

We then moved on to doing an activity with more immediate results. Tataki Zome is a Japanese art form that uses the pressure of hammering natural plant based items onto fabric/ paper.

We cut paper cards and some triangles of the cotton fabric and then everyone hunted around the site for interesting natural items such as flowers and leaves to make our art with.

We all really enjoyed the hammering process and experimented with different techniques. All of the pieces of art were really beautiful and unique.

Then we hung the art to dry. We will be making the fabric triangles into bunting for our harvest festival next week and some of the group will be giving their art cards to friends and family. Although Claire said she was so happy with her card she didn't want to give it away!

Even our resident allotment cat enjoyed the session today!