Weaving in Beauty

The Dye Plants of Spring

6th May 2010

The Dye Plants of Spring

posted in It's All About the Rugs |

Yarn dyed with copper solution, sage, wild carrot, ground lichen, walnut hulls and rabbitbrush dries on the fence in Ft. Defiance.

Window Rock, AZ Today, Rose and Henry Lee Dedman helped us to dye some wool in the Navajo way, over an open fire.  We collected ground lichen, sage and rabbitbrush on the Defiance Plateau and used walnut hulls and wild carrot that we had harvested last year and stored.  One of the students brought a copper penny solution that dyes wool in the color of a light green copper patina.   The most challenging plant to collect is the ground lichen, which grows in small clumps on the higher elevations of the reservation.  Once you learn to recognize the plant, finding more is a thrilling hunt.  It produces a beautiful burnt orange color that is quite beautiful and colorfast.  We carefully took only as much as we needed, leaving more to propagate for the future.

The day turned out to be too windy for a post dye session barbeque, so we invited Henry and Rose to have lunch with us back at the Quality Inn in Window Rock.  Since this is the first Thursday of the month, the menu featured the popular mutton buffet.  Rose said that it was delicious!

Hagoshíí (so long for now)

Mary Walker

Weaving in Beauty LLC
1868 E. LaDonna Dr. Tempe, AZ, 85283 USA 
 • 602-370-2875
This entry was posted on Thursday, May 6th, 2010 at 9:20 pm and is filed under It's All About the Rugs. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.

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  1. 1 On June 7th, 2010, Pat Thalhauser said:

    I was using my old turquoise spatterware teapot today, which usually makes me think of my Nana and this time I also thought of Rose’s beautiful old dyepots. If you see her, Mary, tell her I was thinking of the fun we had dyeing yarn that day. The whole week was great. I’ll think of Rose and Henry every time I use that teapot now.
    Pat

    posted on June 7th, 2010 at 4:51 pm

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    Latest on Mon, 04:10 pm

    Raymon: I have a blanket simialr to the pink blanket. My dad's family had sheep. Every year they would gather the wool and take it to Utah Woolen mills and make beautiful wool blankets. Similar to Pendleton blankets, in many different colors. Love the turquoise jewlrey. My mom has a big beaded bag of it that I hope I get a few peices of (she's half Native American) She finds it kind of amusing that Native American prints etc. are "in" right now.

    Remigio: Way to go, Navajo Nation! Either cease-and-desist, or collect roiaetyls for the use of your name (only on quality products of which you approve, of course). Same with sports teams that use Native names as mascots. Until recently, the University of North Dakota was paying the Standing Rock Sioux annual roiaetyls to use the name Fighting Sioux , which was a win-win and a source of pride for both parties. Unfortunately for both the Tribe and the university, political correctness put an end to that.

    Ann Puzio: Hi Mary, Need to change to the waiting list for 9/13-20th. I hope this is possible.Also, going to see if I can sign up for the online class, need to check my computer. Thanks ann

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