Welcome to My Journal
My musings, the odd DIY tutorial and a little about what's new in my life
Living Coral – Pantone Colour of the Year 2019
My colour palette ideas for Pantone's Living CoralEvery year Pantone announces its colour predictions and trends for the year ahead, and this year we have been gifted 'Living Coral'. It's actually the first shade in a few years that I genuinely love. As with all bold...
Allotment 17: Day 1
Allotment 17: Day 1 This week we were thrilled to discover after several months on the waiting list that we finally have our allotment! After successfully growing some of our own vegetables and fruit in our garden we wanted to expand our produce and grow more of our...
Top 5 tips for having a greener kinder Christmas
my top 5 tips for having a greener kinder Christmas As we head into the season of festivities of eating, drinking and buying and wrapping and giving, I thought it would be a good time to chat about some really easy ways to have a more environmentally friendly and...
The story of a spatula by natural dyer Kate Cullen
The story of a spatula by natural dyer Kate Cullen This is the story of a spatula. This wooden spatula once belonged to my mother over 20 years ago. As an avid and talented cook she had a great many ‘not quite perfect’ tools ready to assist me on my adventure at...
Silk ribbons and modern calligraphy
modern calligraphy book Modern Calligraphy & Hand Lettering is written by Lauren Cooper, owner and calligrapher at Oh Wonder Calligraphy and is published by Haynes. This book takes you through the journey of calligraphy from the basic foundations right through to...
My Handmade Paper Making Journey Part 2
My Handmade Paper Making Journey Part 2 This week I have finally launched my signature collection of handmade papers, created from cotton rag, the remains of my plant dyes, kozo and lokta fibres, which are suitable for printing and calligraphy, as well as decorative...
The Botanical Way – Natural Dye Recipe with Beetroots
The Botanical Way - Natural Dye Recipe with Beetroots This recipe creates the most beautiful golden and coppery hues, which might be surprising given the pinky red nature of the liquid produced from creating the dye stuff, or if you've ever got beetroot juice on your...
The Botanical Way Natural Dye Recipe with Black Beans
The Botanical Way Natural Dye Recipe with Black Beans This recipe uses cold water and requires a lengthy amount of patience! But it is well worth it. Plus there is the added bonus that the beans can still be eaten afterwards and as such no specially dedicated pots or...
The Botanical Way Natural Dye Recipe with Turmeric
The Botanical Way Natural Dye Recipe with Turmeric My latest recipe card utilises the fabulous spice Turmeric. Turmeric is from the ginger family and the powder form is created from the root, it has natural anti-inflammatory properties. It is also a powerful dye...
The Botanical Way – Natural Dye Recipes
The Botanical Way - Natural Dye Recipes For some time I have been thinking of ways to share some of natural dye knowledge, but I've been suffering a bit from 'impostor syndrome' as I am entirely self-taught (anyone else feel this sometimes?). But lately I've come to...
New plant dyed silk ribbons – the Cottage Garden Collection
New plant dyed silk ribbons - the Cottage Garden Collection I'm thrilled to bring you a new range of hand dyed silk ribbon colours this week. Delicate shades of lilac, lavender, mauve, pinks and blue all made from natural botanical dyes - and all reminiscent of my...
My Handmade Paper Making Journey
My Handmade Paper Making Journey As I'm sure you know I use plant dyes to make my silk ribbons and fabrics. For some time I have been thinking of ways I can reuse the leftover materials (all the grungy twiggy bits and residue dyes), and then I came across a great book...
Introducing the Patina Collection – new hand dyed silk ribbons
Introducing the Patina Collection - new hand dyed silk ribbons Today I'm excited (and a little nervous) to introduce a new concept range of hand dyed silk ribbons. I have been developing these for some time, trying to get the patina look I...
Dyeing with flower petals tutorial
Dyeing with flower petals tutorial Dyeing with flower petals is a fun way to use up waste from floristry or from your garden. This week I popped over to the very lovely Acacia Floristry in Malmesbury (a fabulous florist, Jodie always has something unique and beautiful...
Simplicity Collection – my new hand dyed silk ribbon range
Simplicity Collection - my new hand dyed silk ribbon range The Simplicity Collection is my new range of bias cut, hand dyed, habotai silk ribbons. These ribbons are borne out of my love for textures and raw materials, and are reflected in their names. Whilst I am...
You can do anything but not everything – life changes
You can do anything but not everything - life changes As the saying goes, you can do anything but not everything. The last few months have been an exciting and challenging time for me - I started up the Fine Art Wedding Boutique which launched in September and its...
Maree and Dan – a Spring wedding in the Cotswolds
Maree and Dan - a Spring wedding in the Cotswolds As I head towards my last wedding styling of the year in a few days, I am delighted to have received the images from one of my first - that of Maree and Dan at the beautiful, newly refurbished Lower Slaughter Manor in...
New website, new look, new products
New website, new look, new products Welcome! Thank you for stopping by my new website. I'm thrilled with it and it is a testament to the hard work of the fabulous husband and wife team that is Gemma Milly and Tom Gyr. There are no ends to the talents of this pair...