The Craft of Natural Dyeing by jenny Dean

The Craft of Natural Dyeing
by jenny Dean

Contents:

Introduction
Materials
Equipment
Dyeing a skein of yarn
Mordants
Dyestuffs
A world of natural colour
Plants to grow
Glossary and index

This is a very good value 'get you started' book, providing good basic information, an exercise-based approach and good reference information too.

The subtitle 'Glowing colours from the natural world' gives you a clue to what lies in store when you open this book.

My own experience of natural dyeing features dirty yellows and greens which get dirtier with time, but I see that a whole spectrum of bright colours can be achieved. The 'natural colour' chapter takes you on a journey with pages full of colour through golds, greens, blues, greys, lavenders, pinks, red, oranges, browns and finally black.

The 64 pages cover the subject, from sourcing or growing your ingredients, options for mordanting, techniques. It has a rating system for the fastness of the colours.

Jenny Dean doesn't specifically deal with synthetic fibres, but does discuss the different types of natural fibre. Neither does she deal with creative techniques such as shibori and batik. But I guess those techniques aren't specific to natural dyening and this is such a reasonably-price book and it does what it does well, which is to inspire and get you started.

Shiela Dixon, (appropriately) 31 October 2010