The madrone trees are shedding again. It seems they do twice a year if my memory is correct, they burst out of their thin skin and deep russet peels land everywhere. Some are quite large scrolls! I’ve been wanting to do this experiment for years upon years now, so finally I took a brief tour around the house with my stainless steel stock pot, collecting some, not sure how much. I just filled the pot with cold water, and will just let the pot sit without lid out in the scorching hot sun of the deck, while I think about it and research how to properly dye with tree bark. Even only improperly , in case I am lacking anything for the dye bath. One thing for sure, it is not something I have to rush into in the next hour. This is the post before I’ve dyed anything. I’m welcoming all kinds of advice from anybody who’s done natural dye from bark. I don’t have any mordants, however I do have plenty of undyed yarn ready to dip!
I made a post a while back on the madrone as a colorway in Tweed Chronicles, and featured it in a post many years back too, which both do go into a little more depth about this beautiful tree. The wildire had killed off so many that surrounded our house, but the trees have a hopeful future as many of the new shoots that grew out from the base of the burned trees are now up to nearly 15 feet high, and in last post July Days, you can see them again through the window, and making their way back to trees again on the side of the deck.
Anyway, I should like to see a Part Two to this series, a future “after dying” post, but as things are now, this is undetermined. I am dreaming of a signature colorway from my own madrone woods, but not having too much expectation, I just hope this second attempt at dying with madrone bark works at all!
Edit in: Please see my post Tweed Chronicles: Madrone
