Dye Plants and Dyeing

Dye Plants and Dyeing by Cannon, John. paperback edition. ISBN: 9780881923025.

All who work with fibre crafts, as well as botanists, whether amateur or professional, will welcome this clear account of a wide range of plants from which natural dyes can be obtained. John and Margaret Cannon, both professional botanists, have selected forty-eight plants from different parts of the world and describe the structure and cultivation of each, its history as a dye source and the best method for its use based on their own experiments. Most well-known dye plants are included, among them elderberry, henna, indigo, madder and saffron, and each plant is beautifully illustrated by Gretel Dalby-Quenet, a skilled botanical artist, in a full-page painting that also shows the colours the plant can yield. A general chapter on dyestuffs and mordants, a short section of notes for teachers, a checklist of scientific plant names and a glossary help to make this a particularly practical and valuable book both for experimental craft workers and teachers, and for beginners in dyeing, spinning and weaving.