A garden collage - leftovers of leftovers
Results of dyeing with walnut husks
Walnut husks soaking in boiling water prior to making a dye bath
It seemed a shame to throw away the offcuts from the gouache brush cleaning strips used for last month’s daily collages, so I started playing around with them. Leftovers of leftovers. The final collage I made felt like a small paper jigsaw. I really like the random shapes and incidental colour combinations that come from working like this.
I finally got the chance to dye with walnut husks after spotting a tree on my morning dog walk. A really impressive depth of colour on the yarn and woollen blanket, although hardly any shift in colour at all with iron oxide. The colour started coming out of the husks the moment they were covered with boiling water. You definitely need to wear gloves with this dye bath, or you’ll end up with yellow smoker’s fingers (speaking from experience). Looking forward to making ink with what’s left of the dye...