Bringing You the Magic and Beauty of Natural Dyes

Plant dyes are not only environmentally friendly, they are a beautiful and fascinating hobby. They have a genuine appeal to natural fiber artists, spinners, weavers, knitters, felters and others. Many such artists gather their own plant materials to use as dyes. Others also purchase them ready to use from dye suppliers, especially since many of the more vibrant colors can only be obtained from certain countries.

So okay....that's the formal introduction. Who and what is Blue Castle really? My name is Lynn, I live in a beautiful blue Victorian style house that looks kind of like....a Blue Castle. But really, I'm just a hippie at heart and this started out as a hobby. I tend to follow where my interests lead and these interests tend to be a little off the beaten track. As I reconnected with knitting, I began to delve into spinning and then became intrigued by the process of natural dyes. So that's where Blue Castle Fiber Arts began as I started importing easy-to-use natural plant dyes from India (to make it worthwhile, I had to order in much more than I could use myself). Now the product list is growing and you will also find Organic Cotton Sliver (for handspinners) from Peru. It comes in fourteen naturally grown colors. The same cotton yarn will be listed soon, as well as Indian Taklis for handspinning cotton and other short fibers. I have also imported handspun nettle yarn from Nepal. I haven't yet figured out how to list this since each skein is different – different weight, slight difference in color, spun by different spinners, etc. But it will show up soon. Look forward with me to other new products too.

I can't pretend to be a master dyer and I haven't tried the dyes I sell in every possible way or on every possible fiber. But I really enjoying using them and will try to answer any questions you have to the best of my knowledge and experience. Same goes for the cotton sliver. I absolutely love spinning it, but I'm pretty new to cotton spinning.

Want to start reading about natural dyes? Start here.

Just in case you're like me, a bit of a “do-it-yourselfer” and you like to take a project into your own hands, and just in case you've ever thought of having your own website or little on-line business, then really, check out my website and see what you think. I started with no knowledge of how to build a website, but Site Build It (SBI) taught me step-by-step, at my own pace how to put this together. I don't even use all the tools they provide, all included in one incredibly low price.

Click on this logo

or go watch this short little video

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July 2011 - I've just added Organic Cotton Sliver to our product list. This is from Peru (via EcoButterfly - the North American distributor) and comes in 14 gorgeous naturally grown color shades. Just click on the "Organic Cotton" button at the top of the left side navigation bar.

You can see some of my naturally dyed fibers featured in SpinOff Magazine's Fall 2010 Issue. Purchase the magazine or signup to download free the Handspun Gallery of Natural Dyes. Look for the entries titled Pink Copper, Midnight Blue Castle and Purple Shell.

NOW OPEN!! My Etsy Shop is open. Come visit. I will be listing the natural dye kits and occasional yarns and fibers that don't really have a home on this site. Etsy is an amazing place to buy and sell handcrafted items.

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"Everything wonderful and beautiful was in that castle."
from The Blue Castle by Lucy Maud Montgomery


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