When it comes to dyeing, there is a significant upside to using a plant that you can easily forage in abundance: having more allows you to dye much larger pieces of fabric and be a bit more experimental with your dye. Nettles are rather unique as dye plants, as the shades they producediffer signi cantly according to the time of the year you pick them. Early summer plant tops willgive much stronger green shades, while later summer and early autumn leaves will yield a farlighter palette of yellows and very faded khaki. ey also react strongly to iron mordant, whichcan change their hue to browns and greys. I like adding a liquid chlorophyll supplement to dye water, which results in the most stunning green, somewhere between moss and emerald.

(Photo by Julius Honnor)