About Me

A while back, I was dyeing some sheer cotton fabric which looked rather ethereal, the image of some fluttery fae bathing in an old fine china tea cup popped up in my mind.

And I thought this might be a nice name for my hand dyed fabrics.

And then people began asking me to offer my online classes in English as well not only in German.

As things go, The Elfin Dip will be home to my English online class on dyeing and printing with natural dyes on cotton and linen. My hand dyed fabrics will follow later. 

I'm a dyer. As most dyers I began spinning my wool yarns on my handspindles. Then I wanted to dye them, used acid dyes, food dyes and after a short while, I thought there should be more. And I began experimenting with natural dyes. This way way back, in the infancy of the internet and so I taught myself from books and basically every other information source available. After feeling quite comfortable with wool and silk I found my way into plant fibers. And had to learn that there was not a lot information on dyeing cotton and linen with natural dyes out there. So I began experimenting myself, trying this and researching that which led me to teaching this subject. Since I am care taker of my elderly mother travelling is rather complicated. And I thought, there are more people out there like me. Interested in all this stuff but not able to travel to the teachers.

Fortunately, in the meantime, the internet became what it is today. With blogs, and video uploads and online communities and all the other wonderful possibilities to meet like minded people without leaving our homes and the families we have to take care for. 

Over the years I was lucky enough to being able to travel to France and get to see Michel Garcia live, been to ISEND 2011 and in 2014 I was in Japan to learn from Bryan Whitehead.

If I'm not dyeing, I sew my clothes, weave a bit, embroider and basically use every textile technique out there.