July - Oh it’s Dyeing Time Alright! — santa

Just like that! The garden has exploded!! The plants we planted and transplanted are huge and the weeds are unstoppable! We’re staying on top of em’ by putting up a good fight.

*The dye garden, taken on July 21st, 2021*

We’ve been weeding and admiring and sweating and hydrating. Our minds have been blown with the blooms and bounty all around us. Virginia is quite a beautiful place in the summer.

Dyer's Coreopsis varieties

With July, I have had the privilege of turning toward quite a few things I am passionate and excited about, three of which are the three branches of santamente. That being said, when I was pulled a million other less-favorable ways in May and June, and July was but a daydream, I found myself devising a plan for a dedicated dye space. A dye studio, apart from my conceptual art studio and weaving studio, which is located at the McGuffey Art Center, because that space is already full of fiber and art supplies but also doesn’t have great ventilation.

Plants who have no right being this huge!

The solution? The space under our house! (Which is up on stilts). It’s worked out great! Check it out:

It suits most of my needs! The only thing missing at the moment is running water - so I’m working on getting a work sink installed. In the meantime I’m hauling giant pots and buckets of water up and down stairs (I fall into bed at the end of these days). I’ve gotten some tables, lots of buckets, some induction burners, some big tubs for indigo fermentation and other projects. Oh, and lots of pots of course! The locked cabinets where I keep these things are not in the picture here. The clotheslines are great too! In the next post I’ll dive into my first round of dyeing projects in the new studio space.

Before I go I’ll leave you with a few more photos of the garden’s beauty and bounty. I honestly can’t get over how gorgeous it is in there. It constantly blows my mind. I can’t think of a better place to work, even when it’s 95 degrees out!