Bloom & Dye
Fresh Cut Color

Journal

Follow Julie Beeler’s journal as she documents the activities on her flower farm Bloom & Dye, her natural dyeing results in her art studio, and showcases her students creations from her workshops.

Bundle Dyeing

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Throughout time we have perceived color through nature and curiosity about color derived from the natural world is growing in contemporary society. The plant world is a rich resource of color, which can be extracted from flowers, leaves, bark, roots, fruits and seeds. There is a long history of dyeing textile fibers, dating back at least 6,000 years. Until the mid 19th century, when synthetic dyes came into use, all colors came from a natural source.

Bundle dyeing is one of the simplest ways to achieve a rich diversity of colors and textures. To help ensure lightfast and colorfastness the fiber you are using needs to be mordanted. If you have purchased a Bloom & Dye kit your fiber has been pre-mordanted with alum. The purpose of a mordant is to bind dye to fiber. Standard mordants are minerals such as alum, iron and copper. However, many natural mordants that are rich in tannins exist and produce beautiful results. Some include tree bark, galls, rhubarb, and pomegranate. 

Follow these simple steps to create a colorful and impactful bundle dye.

Bundle Dye 

  • Arrange flower petals on top of the fiber material

  • You can fold fiber material in half or arrange flower petals to cover the entire fiber

  • Where you place flowers will leave a pigment shape of color

Roll/Tie

  • Roll or fold the fiber into a tight bundle

  • If you don’t want the imprint to bleed place your fiber on top of a piece of plastic. The plastic acts as a barrier when you roll or fold and keeps the imprint from bleeding through to the other layers.

  • If rolling twist fiber back and forth to tighten

  • Wrap tightly with thread or twine. Tighter than you think!

  • Needs to be tight but DO NOT break your thread

Steam

  • Put in steamer for 1-1.5 hours

  • Ensure there is enough water in the pot and keep at a low temperature 

  • Check periodically to make sure there is plenty of steam and it is not getting too hot. If the pot is too hot or runs out of water it will burn your fiber.

Hang

  • Unwrap and discard materials for composting

  • Don’t rinse, hang to dry

  • Do not dry in direct sunlight

  • Let the fabric cure for a few days or week

  • Finally rinse and press with a hot iron to set your print

juile beeler