Finally today a friend from my Guild has been able to tell me the name of some of my favourite dye Eucalypts. Here is one example: Eucalyptus Scoparia (Wallangarra White Gum).
I love these trees, and they are fabulous dye plants. I feel lucky to have several in my neighbourhood! If you’ve been following this blog you’ve met three of the four I have foundnearby: (October 4; September 5; August 22 2012). Here’s a bag I made with E Scoparia leaf prints on cotton, using a sea water and soy mordant and cast iron:
And this is a corespun yarn. I carded merino dyed with E Scoparia bark with dyed mohair locks and dyed silk and corespun it over a crossbred wool core.
Thanks to E Scoparia, and thanks to Helen for organising an identification for me!
Local & Bespoke 
Wowzers. Amazing colour. Nice to know its real name!
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Thanks!
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fabulous! Thanks for this post. Now I just have to hunt for this tree. There’s heaps of gums around, but none that look like this one…
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at last! You can sleep at night 😉
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Those are stunning, well done!
I’m gonna look out for E. scoparia from now on!
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Hoping you find some 🙂
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Hello – love your blog it’s very informative !! And have these trees all over the place but could never be sure exactly what species they were so thanks !!
Just a question with the sea water & soy mordant did u dip and dry in each of these before dyeing in a cast iron pot, I’ve had no luck getting reds on cotton but I use a ash and soy mordant ( repeatedly dip then let it dry then into a cast iron pot with dye extracted earlier ) I’d like to try your method and see what the results are as mine tend to be very dark . Thank-you and thanks for taking the time to share your findings with the rest of us novices . Rubi – MargaretRiver WA
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I cook my bundles in stainless steel pots and the contribution from metal comes from the pipe (or whatever) in the middle of the bundle. Yes–I did dry between each dip. A big cast iron pot sure would make for a dark bundle, especially if you are vat dyeing–the acidity of the eucalypt dye bath would pull lots of iron into your bath. I recommend India Flint’s books and blog for more detail– Thanks for visiting the blog and taking the time to comment!
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