Plant dye - seasonal opportunities

Chamomile, a real favourite

Welcome to my wee corner of Substack. I am a seasonal artist living on the Isle of Arran, off the west coast of Scotland. I am the custodian of approximately two acres of land that includes a woodland, a meadow and my wee garden. I offer a seasonal book arts project for paid subscribers if you are interested and you can read more about that HERE. Grab a cuppa and lets delve into our relationship with the shifting seasons…..

Let’s talk capturing seasonal opportunities as this a favourite topic of mine! Plugging into seasonality, as an artist, means you know to expect certain creative opportunities to pop up on a regular basis. One of these moments is the flowering of chamomile and with that comes the opportunity to extract dye and ink. I dye with lots of plants from my garden and beyond but chamomile has to be my favourite. I grow it in my garden and harvest it for dye but also for tea and sleep pillows so it is a very giving plant. However, the real joy comes when I find it on the shoreline. Although not dyer’s chamomile it still packs a colourful punch and gathering from the shore is an annual task that brings its own level of connection with the natural world.

Beyond the Scottish island I call home I also visit Kintyre on a very regular basis and to the south you will also find fabulous swathes of chamomile. As with all my gathering I take just enough leaving the majority behind. I often dry it for use later but sometimes I can carve out the time to use it fresh - either way works well. I cook the flowers in water for approximately an hour to extract the colour and then I leave it to cool and stew overnight. That makes the pigment much stronger. The next day I strain the coloured liquid out and it is ready to use.

I am a firm believer that we should all have more yellow in our lives as it is such an uplifting colour and chamomile provides that in spades. I am vegan so I only dye with plant based fabrics like cotton and linen. I forage for these in charity shops with the intention of breathing new life into them. If you would like to give dyeing from plants a go can I recommend an excellent ebook written by a good friend who is a first class dyer. Charlotte, from Ribble Recycle will keep you right!

I also like to make ink with my plant dyes and chamomile gives me a lovely deep yellow to bring into my art work.

It is just like capturing sunshine in liquid form. You make ink by boiling the dye liquid to reduce it and add in a teaspoon of gum arabic to help thicken. I also add in thyme essential oil as a preservative. Ink making is super easy and so rewarding and the fact that I only make it in very small batches adds to the joy.

I never tire of working creatively with chamomile and see it as a fundamental part of my summer work. Being a seasonal artist means that the same things come round year on year and I feel I grow as a creative with each year that passes. But it is also about the comfort of the returning that offers the creative brain a moment of great calmness and that is equally as important. Creative brains can become easily chaotic so a sense of returning to something familiar can be incredibly helpful. At the end of a long creative day working with the pigement offered by chamomile you will find me sitting in the garden with my chamomile tea smiling……