Writing the Proposal for my Masters Project has helped me to clarify my intentions and plan my practice over the next few months. Collecting fresh material for dye baths can be a challenge at this time of year and I want to use my knowledge from the nettle project to explore the range of colours from other plants. My intention has always to be sustainable so when I was confronted with numerous plastic trays filled with blackberries reduced significantly but from Mexico I had to consider my principles. But as upcycling and recycling activities are seen as an aspect of sustainability I decided to buy them!! It was going to be interesting to compare the colours with blackberry dye from my garden and there are parts of the plant I could try so these berries would fit the criteria of my practice. The selected dye sources will be :
EUCALYPTUS  ONION  WALNUT  BLACKBERRY  WOAD BALLS  NETTLE MADDER

These samples are from my work in 2013 but going back to the documentation it is not possible to replicate accurately because the description of process is mainly focussed on method and does not state part of the plant, season Ph of water/soil etc. So I have set up 2 methods of recording my practice so that replication is more precise. The extraction and  dye bath, then the designs where additives, mordants and fibre will effect change. However because 'there is still much inter disciplinary work to be done to find securely grounded scientific explanations for the process' (Cardon in Natural Dyes) it will be difficult to have the certainty that can be achieved with chemical dyes. But I have never liked complete certainty!