“After one too many patronising comments and years of dismissive attitudes towards her work, once-respected botanist Dr Calanthe Stamen succumbs to the dark whispers of vengeance. Driven by a deep-seated grudge against those who have wronged her, she uses her vast botanical knowledge to explore the dark side of nature’s healing secrets. Unravelling the secrets of poisonous plants, she extracts the lethal compounds concealed beneath their enchanting beauty. The very expertise that once brought solace and relief to many now becomes her instrument of retribution. Hidden within her secret garden, she crafts her toxic tinctures, carefully selecting her victims and watching from the shadows as her potions take effect.”
This solstice calendar is going to be a bit special. It’s all about the gorgeous colours and intense hues that are displayed by some of our most beautiful plants… that also happen to be our most toxic!
Whilst admiring the luscious deep jewel tones of the cover illustration for a book I’d been reading — a murder mystery involving botany gone horribly wrong — I was struck with inspiration. The cover was delicious and I realised I’d read a couple of books along this line recently, and increasingly had been traversing mini rabbit holes as I came across new-to-me plants or discovered the toxicity of something I’d always admired. I wanted to do a collection about poisonous plants.
And then later on, as I stood like a little wool witch cackling over my dye pots, I decided that colourways inspired by a bitter botanist — and all the aesthetically beautiful ways they could wreak havoc — would make for a particularly lush colour story for a solstice collection.
I’m really excited to bring this delicious, rich and vibrant celebration of the bitter botanist’s arsenal to you.
Will you grab your medicine droppers and gardening gloves and come with me?
As always, everything will be lovingly hand dyed in my little solar powered dye studio in small town Aotearoa New Zealand, before making its way to your doorstep.
Each solstice kit will comprise:
~ 20x 20g mini skeins that have been carefully and lovingly hand dyed by Jo. They are designed to work together as a beautiful colour story, either in the order intended as a fade, or alternated to create gorgeous stripes.
~ 1x 100g skein, also lovingly handdyed by Jo, that coordinates with the minis and makes the whole collection sing!
~ A handmade linen project bag, strictly exclusive to this solstice calendar
~ A couple of quality surprises scattered throughout
Each skein will come individually wrapped and numbered so you can play along and open a mini skein each day until the full sized skein to celebrate the Solstice on the 21st… or you can open them all at once, or whenever and in whatever order you like — it’s your calendar and your business!!
Click through to the website to see all the details. They’re available now… in strictly limited numbers. Don’t miss out… it’s going to be a killer collection!
