Nettles from far and wide

The nettle search has begun. I have already collected from my garden and have 4 different samples to compare. They are already showing a range of colour and I am thinking that I need to compare the colour differences from plant parts. Does the whole plant cause darker colours? Leaves create a stronger dye vat? Leaves in different seasons? A visit to a Nature Reserve and a chat with their biologist revealed that there are different species of nettle - the nettle plot thickens! Does it matter anyway? Is what I am doing valid or even useful?
Friends from across the country ie Devon Gloucester Kent Hampshire and Dorset arrived at the weekend carrying their bags of nettle and a soil sample!! They want to know what kind of colour their nettle produces and if their colour is different to the rest of the group.
Now I need to plan my time and get on with the idea that nettles are a good source for a reliable yellow/green dye giving a range of colour tones!

Nettle tops collected in May waiting for a bath of boiling water!

As the label says - nettle leaves dried from the same patch last Autumn in their bath of boiling water.

It is also essential for me to get back into a sketch habit. There are so many ideas I want to try to explore the shapes of reflections ripples etc and I have some good images to work from and I want to get to know the shapes of fish that I have been gathering from books directly from the Nat History Museum and photos.

 Such interesting shapes and I
love the detail of the face and gills

Just need to get on exploring ways of representing them on paper and fabric.

So much to do - just need to get organised!!

Natural History museum

I must remember to check when half term falls and not plan to go to the Natural History Museum! But managed to see the fish exhibits and the amazing shapes and features. The resist fish I did with a madder dye were successful so I want to extend my reserve of drawings and images and combine fish into the water designs.

The problem at the Museumwas that I didn't spend a lot of time drawing from the displays but the time I did spend enabled me to study the features of the faces and the fin structure. The lines of the bones and scales can relate well to wax resist and I can make tools to give the impression of scales.

I loved the colours of some of the specimens and the exaggerated features. Think they could be a design source in their own right not only combined with my ripple and reflection ideas!

But I have started gathering nettles for my research into the range of colours/tones that can be extracted from nettles.
The Botanist in the Research Centre in the Nat. Hist Museum was really helpful and answered my questions regarding the taxonomy and homogeneity of nettles. He said he would be interested in the outcomes of my research!!