J288 The Journal for WSD

Imposing the law on anyone gathering small amounts of wild material for dyes would be pointless, but that doesn’t mean foragers should act irresponsibly and with no regard to local ecology. The concept that the land and all it provides belongs to all of us runs very deep. Massive protests took place on Dartmoor after a recent court decision upheld a landowner’s right to ban wild camping, but this was overturned in July 2023. Diversity in natural dye use As a group of natural dyers, growers, artists and tutors it has always been our concern to teach what we consider to be the responsible use of materials and to promote high quality dyeing. This includes good preparation of materials, appropriate mordanting, and selecting dyes for fastness as well as colour. After months of study, we do now recognise that some contemporary natural dyers have little or no interest in fast colour and reject metal mordants. Some choose to make use of waste plant material which may hold its colour for only a short while. Others use fugitive kitchen dyes such as red cabbage, beetroot or turmeric, or dye spontaneously with hedgerow materials. There are many workshops whose primary focus is on well-being and creating a connection to nature. This growing interest in the use of less colourfast but more readily available dye materials may be explained by the emerging focus on the circular economy and its ability to use commercial waste as part of the textile and fashion process. In conversation with eco-printers, we learned that they generally need smaller percentages of plant material to fibre and the variety of plant colourant material they use regularly differs from that of dyers. Through studying new movements in natural dyes we have noted a great diversity of direction. While maintaining our core principles in our individual work and teaching, our research aims have remained to fact-find and not pass judgment. One exception, however, is that we believe that factoring in re-dyeing as part of an ongoing process with fugitive colour is not only wasteful of water, energy and dye material but also hard to reconcile with a sustainable approach. Our research - so far One of our goals was to enable practitioners to locate reliable information about foraging so they could be confident about what is legal, safe and rewarding to take from the wild without disturbing local ecology. We discovered that a straightforward list of ‘dos and don’ts’ simply isn’t possible, and this reflects the complexity of the subject. Our own individual attitudes have sometimes shifted through research and discussion but conversely, some of our beliefs have been reinforced. Future directions Our group would now like to contact foragers and foraging groups to gain a picture of what wild material each is using, and to compare overall plant use. We would like to compile

Green walnut husks from Juglans species – used for many shades of brown. Photo: Isabella Whitworth

Leaves of Juglans species – used for yellows. Photo: Isabella Whitworth

Windfall and squirrel-nibbled walnut husks, Juglans species – used for browns. Photo: Susan Dye

10

Journal for Weavers, Spinners and Dyers 288, Winter 2023