Plant based.

Isolation project 2.

I can remember quite clearly the first time someone showed me that I could eat plants from my mother’s garden. I can’t remember who this visitor was, I can’t remember which flower it was, but I do remember returning several times to the same plant to chew on a leaf and show anyone else who was on hand. It was a bitter green leaf and I didn’t like the taste much, but it didn’t kill me. That alone was enough to impress this memory on my mind for so many years. Flowers could be food. Flowers live in the garden and food comes from the supermarket but here the lines were blurred. I suppose it didn't occur to me then that flowers and appetites have both been around much longer than supermarkets.

This post isn’t about food, though. It’s about another wonderful, useful and, to me at least, unexpected use for flowers. Their ability to share the very thing that we and the bees love so much about them. Their colour.

One of the things that really draws me to the idea of natural dyes is the concept of preserving something that might be temporary and fleeting. The flowers, the colours, the seasons that might only exist for a couple of days or weeks can potentially last indefinitely on a piece of cloth.

Again it’s a project that requires time, energy, planning and patience. All of which we now have the luxury to possess. It’s the experience I lack, having undertaken only one natural dye project in the past I really am learning as I go with the help of the book ‘Seasonal Natural Dyes’ by Alicia Hall which has made this intricate process just a little bit simpler. 

I’m sure I have and will continue to make plenty of mistakes experimenting with plant dye, but are these things really mistakes or just a little reminder of the environment that it used to be a part of? If I wanted some perfect napkins I would go and buy some, rather than taking hours making them and dying them with flowers. I have to remind myself I’m not seeking perfection, we are all just seeking to feel a little more connected to our wonderful natural surroundings.