h e l i a n t h u s * a n n u u s

fourth post in a row, I know, I should have written & posted them all one after the other, right after they were done, but it was impossible. So there, today's last post will talk about the dye hubby & I made with sunflowers (heliantus annuus) head. My mom, returning from her summer home (with my dad), picked five of them in a field, in the south western France, where their home is. She kept them fresh until she visited me, two days after picking them. I had told her about my wish to try to dye with them, that's why she had picked some for me.

we mordanted our fabrics with alum (as usual) and boiled the heads, but keeping a small part of the upper part of the stem. (where it is attached to the head itself)

the result is a soft, delicate shade of green, I really heart it. It's so different from the green we achieved with phillyrea angustifolia (previous post), & from the greens we achieved either with fennel or sage. They're all so different & so unique. And I love them all.