Although it looks like I have just been concentrating on natural dyes - I have also been researching into synthetic alternatives and the positive and negative factors associated with them - this has proved to be very tricky as I have been torn between settling for British dye companies who get ingredients from all over the globe - but then again are in fact a 'British company' or using natural dyes that can be grown in Britain, thus are fully traceable back to the root it came from. At the moment I am having so much fun experimenting with the variety I can achieve from nature that I am going to see where this leads, as I personally feel at the moment that it be better to use a more water which can then be used to water the plants etc, than to use less but which then needs treatment to make it safe again! I will however continue to research into synthetic alternatives and the benefits of these...

Day 2 of dyeing - the Weld is ready to dye so after a final simmer I set about creating some bright yellows - some not to my taste but when over dyed with Woad created some vibrant greens.

I also made another pot of woad to over dye samples of weld and madder - these created some interesting results - it was amazing to see how using woad then weld created completely different colours to dyeing with weld then woad!