Permaculture and Natural Dyes
Permaculture stands for “permanent culture”, integrating human and ecological needs in to the design process.. It is a series of design ethics and principles that you can apply to any design process or system. Developed by Bill Mollison and David Holmgren in Australia in the 1070s inspired by Masanobu Fukuoka's natural farming philosophy, written in his book ‘One Straw Revolution’.
Permaculture stands for “permanent culture”, integrating human and ecological needs in to the design process. It is a series of design ethics and principles that you can apply to any design process or system. Developed by Bill Mollison and David Holmgren in Australia in the 1070s inspired by Masanobu Fukuoka's natural farming philosophy, written in his book ‘One Straw Revolution’.
Although Permaculture is usually associated with small holdings and hippies, I find the principles are useful guidelines for developing ideas, designing things, and systems of working. Both in relationship with the natural world, socially, and economically. I have applied this to my work making plant based inks and dyes, all the way through from gardening to studio practices.
Twelve permaculture design principles
Articulated by David Holmgren in his Permaculture: Principles and Pathways Beyond Sustainability:
I have added bullet points of reflections of how I like to apply the principles .
Observe and interact: By taking time to engage with nature we can design solutions that suit our particular situation.
Take time to get to know the plants that are growing around you, and fibres that are locally available.
Catch and store energy: By developing systems that collect resources at peak abundance, we can use them in times of need.
Reuse old dye baths to create print pastes and inks.
Collecting food waste to use for ink making.
Follow the energy of the plants. Harvest plants at their most vibrant time. Flowers in the summer, roots in the autumn etc.
We are not aiming for busyness. We are aiming for focussed efficiency of systems that keep your life free to be able to be present in the moment.
Obtain a yield: Ensure that you are getting truly useful rewards as part of the work that you are doing.
When starting out, use simple dye recipes that have few steps so you get quick results. Particularly when working with new plants.
Work with plants that are easy to harvest in abundance without too much work. Such as buddleia, oak galls, sumac, willow bark.
Apply self-regulation and accept feedback: We need to discourage inappropriate activity to ensure that systems can continue to function well.
Try out a few different processes with small quantities of plant material and fibres. Notice what works and what doesn’t work. Build on your successes.
Start small so that you feel able to respond to feedback. Being overly invested too soon can make it difficult to hear feedback that may make investments or hard work obsolete.
Become comfortable with the unknown. This is space for something new to come through.
Use and value renewable resources and services: Make the best use of nature's abundance to reduce our consumptive behaviour and dependence on non-renewable resources.
Choose plants that are renewable. Food waste, flower waste, and abundant wild plants are ideal if it is energy efficient to harvest them. Harvesting bark from pruned branches, sourced from orchards or tree surgeons is a good.
Coppicing trees for a renewable yield without harming the tree.
Some souses of dye plants are not sustainable. Such as dye plants that come from hardwood trees resulting in forest clearance.
Make sure you know where all your materials come from.
Consider where your energy for water heating is coming from. Consider how you can reduce the energy you use.
Consider where your water comes from. How can you minimise your water use.
Produce no waste: By valuing and making use of all the resources that are available to us, nothing goes to waste.
Reusing dye baths for paler colours
Turning dye baths in to inks and print pastes.
Using food waste from cafes such as avocado skins and flower waste from florists.
Harvest tree bark from fruit tree pruning.
Avoid creating contaminated water waste through careful consideration of dye processes and ingredients. Design from patterns to details: By stepping back, we can observe patterns in nature and society. These can form the backbone of our designs, with the details filled in as we go.
Integrate rather than segregate: By putting the right things in the right place, relationships develop between those things and they work together to support each other.
Connecting people together through craft. Making together, making connections. Working together in gardens and more labour intensive processes such as indigo extraction and large harvests.
Practice zoning. What activities require your attention every day? Position these at home. What activities only need weekly, monthly, or annual attention? These can be positioned further away. For example, in peak season coreopsis flowers need to be harvested every day, so I plant these right outside my front door. Madder is only harvested in large batches once or twice a year so I grow this in a garden further from home.
Growing at different levels. Madder is a low sprawling plant, so often I grow sunflowers in the madder bed in order to save on space.
Design from patterns to details: By stepping back, we can observe patterns in nature and society. These can form the backbone of our designs, with the details filled in as we go.
Working with seasonal flow. What is this season asking of me in this moment? Where is the energy in the plants during this season?
Use small and slow solutions: Small and slow systems are easier to maintain than big ones, making better use of local resources and producing more sustainable outcomes.
Small scale, human size production.
Build your processes slowly, testing new recipes with small amounts of fabric.
Use and value diversity: Diversity reduces vulnerability to a variety of threats and takes advantage of the unique nature of the environment in which it resides.
Aim to work with a variety of plants that are locally available throughout the seasons. I like to work with herbs such as rosemary, sage, and bay because they are reliably available all year round. There are challenges to seeking a non-toxic practice, and also seeking to create a wide spectrum of vibrant colours. This often leaves me reliant on particular plants that I can not grow, such as symplocos and indigo. This can be restricting if there is a limit to supply.
Use edges and value the marginal: The interface between things is where the most interesting events take place. These are often the most valuable, diverse and productive elements in the system.
Connecting people who come from different practices in natural dyeing, from growers, to weavers, and knitters. Working with plant dyes integrates many different processes.
When looking for dye plants, look for the ecological edges. The edges, the field edges, the waysides, the fences along industrial areas, and river sides.
Look for creative edge. This is where the opportunities are. Where plants, materials, and processes come together in unexpected ways. Look at where plant dyeing meets ink making. Or where plant dyeing meets weaving, or herbal medicine.
Creatively use and respond to change: We can have a positive impact on inevitable change by carefully observing, and then intervening at the right time.
Working with the seasons of the year.
Working with the seasons in our life.
If you are interested to explore this further, I run various courses in working with natural dyes and inks. Some online, and some from my studio in South Devon in the UK.