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Ria - Natural Dye Grower 🌱

@riagrowsdyes

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🏵️ Natural dye grower & dyer
🌸 Gardening in N. Somerset
🧑🏻‍🏫 Author & educator
🌿 Learn to grow & dye with me @seedtoskein
🧶 Also knits @riaburnsknit

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Wonderful day on Monday presenting our prototype storage enclosure for the amazing Three Acres of Colour project for @garryfabianmiller at Juliet Bailey’s very inspiring Bristol weaving studio @dashandmiller @bristol_weaving . For @tabbygibbs_conservation who made the enclosure and hanging mechanism, @ania_m_golebiowska who came because of her natural dye experience and myself (driver) it was a truly fabulous, collaborative day, worthy of several posts (my posting mojo might be back).

We had the opportunity to meet some of the project’s key players including @riagrowsdyes who has done done all the natural dyeing and Juliet and her wonderful team who have woven all the pieces completed so far - and to spend some more time with current hero Garry, looking resplendent in a fabulous shade of green. (Previous post about our last encounter temporarily pinned)

Still to meet are Sarah Griffin who is growing and harvesting the crops on her Valley of Pewsey farm, the owners of the Dartmoor flock of sheep and the Cornwall spinners The Natural Fibre Company. What a collaboration!

It was a wonderful opportunity for Garry and Ria to see six of the nine woad woven squares in their subtly changing shades laid out together for the very first time. A similar number of the weld squares are also now complete with the madder shades due to follow along soon.

Such an honour to be involved in a small way with this amazing project to ensure suitable inert conservation storage and integral simple hanging mechanisms for all 27 pieces.

#preventiveconservation #textilconservation #naturaldye #weaving taken in Dash + Miller by @riagrowsdyes

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2 days ago

October's content is now live on Seed to Skein - the growing-led natural dye membership.

This month has an Autumnal, tannin-rich theme, and features:
🍂 A Deep Dive into Tannins
🌰 A dye recipe for walnut leaves
🌈 A yarn dyeing tutorial for overdyeing
🌱 Some maintenance jobs to do in the garden
🏵️ And my regular video update from my garden, where I'm harvesting some madder and rearranging one of the garden beds

Members can access this and all previous content on the platform now.
And if you're interested in learning more, you can join now for just £15 per month 😁 by @riagrowsdyes

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4 days ago

The garden is still giving bountiful harvests, even in October!

With some chilly mornings this week, is this perhaps the penultimate one? In a way I hope so, I'm running out of drying space 😅

#naturaldyegrower #naturaldyegarden #mygardeninoctober taken in Ria Burns Knitwear & Natural Dyes by @riagrowsdyes

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8 days ago

Saving seeds from plants you've grown means you'll have future crops that are more resilient and suited to your climate and soil. Plus it's free and kinda fun (in my opinion anyway).

Or, you could just be a lazy gardener, like me, and let the plants self seed under where they are growing. The self seeders produced some of my best plants this season,and I'm sure they'll do the same next year.

If you're interested in learning more about saving seeds with natural dye plants, there's a video guide all about that topic in this month's @seedtoskein membership .

#seedsaving #resilientgarden #seedsovereignty taken in Ria Burns Knitwear & Natural Dyes by @riagrowsdyes

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16 days ago

I had a very early start for @yeoorganicgarden festival this morning, but of course I spent 10 precious minutes of that time making this natural dye arrangement.

I'm certainly no florist, but it was nice to have some fresh flowers on the stand. Dunno why it ended up in the cursed celery man vase, blame my 7am brain 😂

#celeryman #naturaldyegrower #yeovalleyorganicgardenfestival taken in Yeo Valley Organic Garden & Tearoom by @riagrowsdyes

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a month ago

One of these things is not like the other... by @riagrowsdyes

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a month ago

Last week I ran my first group workshop at the studio.
It was a two day exploration into making blue dyes with woad and indigo - and it was such a good time!

It was wonderful to welcome people into my workspace and garden, and we made some really beautiful things! Thanks to everyone that attended - I hope you left feeling inspired and that your journeys into blue continue 💙

Workshop dates for 2027 coming soon, and in the meantime I have 2 spaces left on my next yarn dyeing workshop at @creativespacebristol on October 3rd, and availability for 1-1 sessions here until November 😊

#naturaldyeworkshop #indigoworkshop #índigo #woad taken in Ria Burns Knitwear & Natural Dyes by @riagrowsdyes

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a month ago

Another one minute dye garden update!

Filmed just before I harvested everything for the first time in a week, and it's all looking pretty lush. Even the lawn is kind of ok after all of the rain ☔

#naturaldyegarden #woodlandsdyegarden taken in Ria Burns Knitwear & Natural Dyes by @riagrowsdyes

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a month ago

POV: You're a coreopsis flower in my dye garden and you're getting picked

Planned something way more elaborate today but the day ran away with me, and thought this was silly enough on its own 😂

#woodlandsdyegarden #riagrowsdyes
Natural dyes Coreopsis Organic Gardening Flower farming taken in Ria Burns Knitwear & Natural Dyes by @riagrowsdyes

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2 months ago

New username – same me! 🌱

Finally ditched the Bristol handle (only 18 months after moving 🙃) and made it a little more relevant to what I actually do: grow natural dye plants.

@riagrowsdyes is where you'll now find me, sharing updates from the dye garden, colourful harvests, growing experiments and all the stuff that happens between seed and skein.

The fabulous photos of me and the garden here are courtesy of @johounsomephotography - look forward to sharing more of this shoot with you!

#naturaldyegarden by @riagrowsdyes

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2 months ago

Seed to Skein is 6 months old 🥳

Here's what we've been up to and what I've loved about the community so far.

Fancy joining us? It's not too late! taken in Ria Burns Knitwear & Natural Dyes by @riagrowsdyes

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2 months ago

Some dye garden flowers that are looking particularly nice, after the rain yesterday.

Coreopsis tinctoria

Dahlia 'nuit d'ete'

Dahlia 'procyon'

Tagetes erecta 'Kees orange'

Me having a lovely time in the rain taken in Ria Burns Knitwear & Natural Dyes by @riagrowsdyes

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2 months ago