While the garden is still waking up and the ground slowly warms here in New England, the studio is already full of color.
May is a season of transition in the dye studio. Seasonal flowers such as forsythia are beginning to appear, while dried flowers and plant materials saved from previous seasons continue to offer a rich palette. I’ve been setting up dye pots and exploring what each material can bring to cloth.
Madder creates warm reds, cosmos gives bright orange, cutch produces earthy browns, and logwood brings vivid purple. Even avocado pits and skins can shift into soft pinks. Each dye behaves differently, influenced by the plant material, fabric, mordant, temperature, and timing.
Alongside the dye pots, I’ve been spending more time on a quieter but essential part of my practice: keeping dye records.
For each experiment, I record the materials, measurements, mordants, temperature, timing, and results, while organizing fabric swatches as a visual reference. Over time, these small samples become a growing natural dye library—a way to compare results, understand patterns, and refine my processes.
Natural dyeing can look simple from the outside: a plant, a pot, and a piece of cloth. But every finished textile is supported by many behind-the-scenes steps—fabric preparation, testing, careful observation, and documentation.
I’ve come to see this systematic work as an important part of slow making. Documentation allows me to learn from each dye bath rather than simply moving on to the next one. It helps me develop a deeper understanding of plant color while creating more intentional and consistent work.
As the New England garden moves toward summer, I’m continuing to build this color library—one dye pot, one experiment, and one swatch at a time.
The garden may still be between seasons, but in the studio, the study of color is already well underway.