Customer Reviews

A Weaver's Garden: Growing Plants for Natural Dyes and Fibers

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

This is my first year dying with plants, and I checked this book (along with several others) out of our local library over the winter so I could prepare for the short growing season. This is the only one I went out and purchased so I could have a copy on hand. I'm trying to focus on plants I have growing in my own yard, and Rita's book is extremely helpful when I'm trying to figure out what to do with an uncommon dyeplant - for instance, she has a page where she talks about dyeing with pokeberries, but extrapolates from that to give some general rules that should work for dyeing with almost all berries - helped me when I tried to dye using buckthorn berries, mulberries, and cherries. I've since bought several other dye books, but if I could only choose one to have on hand, it would be this one (or her companion book, A Dyer's Garden - but I loved the information on fiber plants that this book had).

I am a fanatic when it comes to dyeing and weaving my own yarn. I really enjoyed this book's dyeing techniques and the methods of extracting natural dyes from their sources. This book is great when it comes to teahing other people about hoow to make their own dyes. I even got my son into dyeing whit natural methods, my son is 14 and usually hates to take any of my advice. This showshow great this book really is!!

Having used a borrowed copy of Buchanan's Dyer's Garden book, I thought this would contain much of the text from that book PLUS info on growing bast plants. I was wrong. This is an ok introduction to a very large topic, but it does not have the same level of detail. If natural dyes are your primary interest, skip this book and buy A Dyer's Garden instead.

Purchased this book thinking it was going to teach me how to dye using natural dyes and dye methods and it miss the mark completely. The only photos in the book are sketches of some of the featured plants in the book and several color photos.
This book is recommended for those that know little about dye plants and want to learn the species, growing conditions, etc...but as far as learning how to do actual dyeing with natural dyes along with color photos for reference - look elsewhere.
Also, if you have eyes that are pushing the mid-century mark, this book has small type. Just so you know.

This book is wonderful just as her other one is. Makes you want to get out there and start growing more plants for dyes! Kay