Product Description

A Dyer's Garden touches on the history and nature of dye plants and walks you through a garden season from design to planting to harvesting for the dyepot.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #85772 in Books
• Published on: 1995-01-01
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 112 pages

About the Author

Customer Reviews

Best book around for plant dyes
Rita gives CLEAR instructions on WHAT part of the plant to harvest for which color; which mordants and which fibers produce which colors; and what time of the year to harvest the plant. In addition, her color photos of the color outcome are neatly stacked along the right edge, enabling the reader to flip through the book to see the colors. There is also an appendix listing where the reader can get seeds for the plants in the book. Anyone interested in trying GOOD dye plants (almost any plant will give you at least tan) should have this small, well-written and beautifully illustrated book. Rita is one of the best.

Great for re-enactors
I particularly recommend this book as a visual source for historical re-enactors.

Too often there are descriptions of what dye-plants were used to color garments, but, no examples of what those colors would look like. This book provides clear, vivid color photos on a whole range of dye-plants grown during pre-medieval, medieval, Colonial, and later times. Additionally, it shows the same dye used on different fibers, sometimes with different mordants (fixers). Fiber samples include linen, wool, silk, and cotton.

I recommend this book to people interested in making clothing from "modern" material...it gives them the best opprotunity possible to try to find close color-matches. Alternately, it provides solid information to dye cloth by hand.

Also, the low price can't be beat!

Terrific -- and "For Real"
Beautifully researched, solid data, and great color illustrations and presentation AND amazingly enough, her information is ACCURATE. No theoretical blather based on other references or wishful thinking. She has clearly tested, cross-checked, and validated all of her information first-hand. That in itself is remarkable, greatly appreciated, enormously valuable. Thank you Ms. Buchanan!