Wool comes in so many colors, that’s for sure. But where do they come from? Plants, Animals or only some chemicals? To get a first feeling for different natural dyes the children divide a basket full of coloured wool into natural colors and artificial ones. Then we talk about which colors where really natural. There are soooo many colors nature can create! A full rainbow.
But now we want to try to colour some wool on our own. In some prepared jars we have water with roots (woad), pomegranate skin, red wine or beetroot pieces inside. The color of the water has already changed and we add some white sheep wool to see what will happen. Due to the fact that we won’t heat it up but just leave it in the liquid for some days, the result will be clear next week. We decided not to use any morband to remain fully natural. Only some salt and vinegar to fix the colors better.
After some time inside, talking about dying plants, roots and even insects that are used to dye wool the children ask to go outside to collect some dying plants on our own. We find acorns and many different green leaves that we want to experiment with. Let’s see what will happen!
The last hour of the lesson we continue spinning wool and are getting better and better! Already the first little balls of wool are done and will wait to be used in a little weaving project in some weeks.