In the Dye Pot: Experiments from the Garden

The other week, I spent an afternoon gathering flowers from my garden — not for a vase, but for the dye pot. I wanted to experiment with bundle dyeing: laying petals and leaves onto fabric, rolling it up tightly, and steaming it to see what colours nature might leave behind.

It’s part magic, part mystery. Some flowers gave off the most beautiful, surprising colours — soft pinks, dusty yellows, and unexpected greys. Others did absolutely nothing.

That’s the joy of it, really. You never quite know what will happen. I made little sample squares using scraps of silk, just to test — layering them with rose petals, geraniums, nemesia, salvia, and anything else that caught my eye. The results were patchy in places, bold in others. Some petals left delicate imprints. Some just turned, well nothing.

It’s not a perfect process, and I’m definitely still learning. But that’s what I love — the quiet surprise of opening up a steamed bundle and seeing what’s taken hold. It feels like a conversation with the garden. Like nature offering up a little moment of colour, if you’re patient enough to ask.