Green Fingers....or Blue?

I never did understand the phrase ‘green fingers’.   My Granny loved her garden and her plants and flowers always looked amazing.  But when she came indoors, from a spot of digging and weeding, her fingers were any colour but green!  

This week MY fingers have gone a shade of grey, again!  I KNOW the instructions say to wear gloves but that all seems a waste of time until the damage is done!   Since experimenting with a khaki jumper (which clearly didn’t suit me after all) by adding black dye (achieving charcoal) and the obligatory tie-dying at school, altering the colour of things to make them more appealing has become a minor hobby! 

I changed (uninteresting) cream bed linen to a darker shade of pink by mixing pink and red dye, it worked a treat.  The silk embroidery took on a different intensity of colour than the cotton fabric, which I liked a lot, I chose lavender and pink  for the extra pillow cases and with a lot of colour experience, but a relative lack of dying experience, created a beautifully coordinated bedroom! 

In the late 90s I remember the joy of discovering a pair of purple jeans on a holiday to San Francisco and the accompanying sadness when they died (pun intended!) a few years later.  In 2014 coloured jeans are more readily available but in the intervening years I’ve been known to buy jeans in the palest shade of stone wash, acquire some burgundy dye on the way home and introduce them to each other in the washing machine before wearing them.  The fabulous plummy shade that resulted was a joy to wear at a time when jeans came in any colour as long as it was blue!

Then there was my friend on a budget with what would have been a cool and comfortable skirt for the warm summer days - if she had been a summer.   Looking for something to go with it was her challenge so I suggested a cheaper alternative would be to dye the skirt terracotta to match the rest of her wardrobe.    

As one of her 2-star colours, that skirt has become a staple of her wardrobe, all year round rather than an occasional summer skirt which she only has 2 tops to choose from to go with it.
I would never have dared to suggest this without my understanding of the colour wheel, cool and
warm colours and how
                                                                       they befriend and
                                                                       alienate each other
                                                                       depending on their
                                                                       position on the wheel.

Shoes are not immune. A client with extra wide feet found a great style for her in the right size, wrong colour; applying a dark brown shoe dye took them into her season and gave her a pair of shoes that will form the core of her capsule wardrobe.

I decided my grey suede knee-length boots weren’t quite the right shade after all, 4 bottles of dye (£20) later and they became navy blue.  This has faded a little with time so this weekend’s playtime was to use another 2 bottles (£10) to freshen up, restore the depth of colour and give them a new lease of life; a more cost-effective route than purchasing a new pair, given the ones I’ve seen recently (navy having a scarcity value) range from £150-£395!

My nails and fingertips have nearly recovered!  Reminiscent of granny’s gardening hands, it’s just as well I’m working from home this week!