BOTANICALLY DYED VEGAN BANANA SILK ART YARN

BOTANICALLY DYED VEGAN BANANA SILK ART YARN

Banana silk is a vegan—cruelty free—fibre that is made from the scraped and repurposed bark of banana trees. The yarn is core spun and has a gorgeous sheen. If you’re looking to incorporate more sustainable and plant-based fibres into your fibre art and fibre craft, then this is a wonderful product to work with!

I’ve dyed these yarns with a mix of conventional and botanical (which is to say with natural extracts and elements from nature). They have been hung to dry and then twisted into skeins—all a labour of love that I perform in my home studio on Vancouver Island. Please note that botanically dyed fibres can leave a non-toxic, dry residue on hands and clothing (just something to be aware of when working with this banana silk).

Natural dyes yield colours that gorgeous, unique, intricate, and variegated. “Nature’s Ombre” is how I’ve come to think of the results of botanical dyeing. I’ve used a mixture of indigos, myrobalan, quebracho, pomegranate, lac, logwood, cutch, walnut, and madder, marigold, rhubarb, and pomegranate to achieve these shades.

Fascinating textural elements and non uniform colours with surprising pops give this yarn it’s aesthetic depth and make it a wonderful fibre for many different creative applications:

Each skein is approximately 100g in weight and contains around 90 feet of yarn.

PLEASE NOTE:

Botanical dyes create variable colours—and even variable textures. They have speckles, and spots, and an unparalleled marbling effect, along with natural variegation and unevenness in tones and colour intensity. I’ve also found that the dyeing process has rendered the banana silk more stiff than usual. It will likely soften over time, but just know that this would make a very scratchy woven garment, and I think it’s better suited to tapestry weaving.