Natural Dyes.
My first venture into using natural dyes has given me a real appreciation of the convenience and controllability of Procion dyes! I have a couple of books on the subject, I have downloaded fact sheets from the web, and I bought a starter kit from Aurora Silks in America. (As a life-long vegetarian with strong vegan leanings, I only use Peace (cruelty-free) silk, which unfortunately, is expensive and only available from America. (I have bought some Peace Silks from Offset Warehouse, but they don't always stock it and don't have a wide selection.)
I decided that for my first attempt I would use materials from the kit as I thought this would be simplest. However, I found the instructions unclear. The measurements are in ounces and teaspoons, and as quantities of mordant and dye are calculated as percentages, neither ounces nor teaspoons ar convenient as a unit of measurement. I decided I would use grams, making the percentage calculations easier, and referred to the books for clarification of the instructions.
The basics, as I believe them to be after one attempt, are:
- Always wear gloves.
- Weigh the fabric - in grams!
- Fabric needs to be 'scoured' to remove any finish. SILK: Immerse in hot, soapy water using a neutral ph washing powder or liquid. Bring to the boil and simmer for 15-20 minutes. Save the water and use to rinse the finished dyed fabric to restore the original shine and lustre. Rinse and leave to dry naturally. COTTON: Add 5g sodium carbonate per 100g fabric to a bucket of hand hot water. Bring to the boil and simmer for 30 minutes. Rinse and leave to dry naturally.
- Results vary depending on whether the material is animal (silk, wool) or vegetable (cotton, linen)
- The fabric needs to be boiled and simmered for about an hour in a mordant, which attaches to the fabric and holds the dye, making the colour permanent and light-fast. The most commonly used mordants are alum, iron, copper and tin. (Chrome may also be used, but it is harmful to the environment, so I won't be using it.) The choice of mordant affects the colour. The mordanted fabric may be stored in the solution in a plastic container.
- The dyes come in different forms. BARK: If bark is used, it may need to be soaked overnight, then put into the leg of a pair of tights and boiled for around an hour to produce the dye water. The tights-bag may be saved and used again, producing a less intense colour. FLOWERS: are put into a tights-bag and boiled. EXTRACTS: simply dissolve in water.
- The colour will be effected by whether the water used is hard (alkaline) or soft (acid). I live in an area with extremely hard water, but I do have a water ionizer, so can produce acid water.
- The results are not as predictable or consistent as Procion dyes produce. There seem to be an enormous number of variables for each dye; the fabric used, the water (acid or alkaline), the mordant (alum, tin, copper, iron, chrome, or any combination with or without cream of tartar) and the dye itself, which as a natural material, will vary from batch to batch!
- Surprisingly, green seems to be a difficult colour to achieve. The majority of recipes for green seem to involve over-dyeing indigo.
Rust Dyeing
Cotton fabric soaked in salt for a few hours, then wrapped around iron nails and other pieces of rusty metal then left in a plastic bag for 4 days.
The results are beautiful, but the fabric can only be used for ephemeral items as the rust will eventually destroy it, making it unsuitable for heirloom items.
Top photo: Mordanting Fabric: Silk fabric boiled for an hour in Alum
Next: Silk fabric boiled for an hour in iron. The fabric has turned very dark, possibly because the iron is alkaline and our tap water is very hard - also alkaline. I'll try using acid water (lower ph) another time.
Next: Preparing Bark, flowers etc for dyeing. Some bark needs to be soaked overnight. Stretch the leg of a pair of tights over a bowl and insert the material. Tie the bag off and boil to produce dye water.
Bottom photo: Logwood bark having been soaked and 'bagged' ready for boiling.
These are the results of dyeing with Fusticwood. The top row of three shows silk mordanted in Alum 25%, a mix of Alum and Iron, and Iron 1.5%. The third sample is supposed to be olive green! Having read more, it seems that the iron mordant can be added with the dye rather than pre-boiling. I will have to try that as greens are difficult and I'd like to produce one.
The lower three rows are various cotton fabrics.
Top fabric: Heather flowers bought from George Weil. I soaked the dried flowers overnight, then boiled them for an hour to produce the dye water. The cotton fabric was mordanted with Alum.
Lower fabric: Teeccino Herbal Coffee. I left some mordanted fabric by the kettle and every time I had a cup of Teeccino, I left the hot, wet 'teabag' on the fabric. I rinsed the fabric every few days and after about 3 weeks, the fabric had reached this stage, producing quite a nice fabric.
Above: Logwood on silk. The colours are too dark to be seen clearly in this photo, so scans are below. The second and third samples are very similar, so just two scans.
Sample 1: Fabric weighed 20g. Logwood used 15g. Mordant, Alum 5g
Sample 2: Fabric weighed 20g. Logwood used 15g. Mordant, Iron 1.5g
Sample 3: Fabric weighed 20g. Logwood used - 2nd use of dye above. Mordant, Iron 1.5g
N.B. The bottom two are supposed to be a smoky blue colour - they've turned out a pleasant mink colour. Again, the iron mordant has produced an unexpected result.
Brazilwood on Cotton
The use of acid or alkaline water in the dye is supposed to affect the colour. I used alkaline tap water in one dye batch and acid water from a water ionizer in the other. The sample on the left in the top row was in acid water, and is very slightly more blue.
I mixed the two dye batches and continued to dye fabric hoping to get paler shades, but the dye lasted well! The intensity of the dye didn't seem to reduce much through the 5 dye runs.
Above: Sun Dyeing with Lumi Inkodye
The instructions said the fabric should be machine washed on a HOT/COLD setting after exposure to the sun. My machine doesn't have this setting so I washed by hand. Product was probably left in the fabric as the bale blue 'crinkle' pattern appeared when I left the samples to dry. I like the effect though, so I'm happy. I reproduce the 4 photos below for more detail.
Fabric loosely folded from one corner
Folded vertically then twisted.
Randomly scrunched - lovely!
Pinched in the centre then twisted.
Above: Shadow Printing
The flat leaves worked well, but the more dimensional conifer leaves produced a blurred image. The Inkodye works well, but they don't make a green or yellow - I want a green! ( I believe Dy-na-Flow works well for sun dyeing - something else to try one day)
I used the silk I dyed with the Fusticwood with the Blue Inkodye to try to produce a green - it worked! I used leaves again to produce the shadows together with a little fabric manipulation.
Again, attempting to produce green, I used the blue Inkodye on some yellow 'Spraytime' fabric by Makower. The result is quite a pleasant teal blue, but not what I was after.
For my next dyeing session, I wanted to try the dye on a variety of fabrics. I stitched a number of fabrics onto calico and dyed it in Cutch Powder.
The results are interesting and show that quite a variety of tones can be produced. The fabrics used working from top to bottom on the left side are: Crepe bandage, cotton netting, Peace silk and the calico background. From top to bottom on the right hand side: Open weave cotton, SuedFx, Scrim, Mulberry bark, muslin and hessian. I particularly liked the colour and texture of the crepe bandage, so dyed a larger piece in the remaining dye water. The colour is slightly paler, but still a very effective tree bark texture and colour.
My next experiment was with madder, using Alum as a mordant. The resultant colour is absolutely gorgeous! It's a salmon pink, but a very natural, autumn colour. I am finding that, despite the difficulties, I far prefer the results the natural dyes are giving over the more 'chemical' and artificial colours that Procion dyes produce.
The autumn colour simply had to be used to make a little stitched sample! I pulled the weft threads out of a piece of hessian, then used a machined zig zag stitch along the warp threads. The background is one of the sun-dyed fabrics plus a piece of the madder on cotton. I've also used some Firefly yarn which matched the colour perfectly and provides a little bit of shine. (Sorry it's a tad wonky - it moved in the book after I glued it in!) The colour in the scan is closer to the true colour than the photos.
I used an un-mordanted fabric to see the effect of the dye on a printed white-on-white fabric. The piece on the left was left unwashed after dyeing, the piece on the right was washed. I was surprised at how much dye remained in the un-mordanted fabric, even after a wash.
The turmeric in curries always successfully dyes any clothes it gets splashed on when I don't want my clothes dyed - so I thought I'd see what turmeric could do when I actually wanted it to stain! I tried it on cotton and muslin and it did produce a strong yellow colour
Next, I bought a Mordant Pack from George Weil. The pack contained Alum, Chrome (which I won't be using), Copper, Iron and Tin. The accompanying notes have been glued into the Dyeing Book - see photo below.
HEALTH AND SAFETY NOTE: The Chrome and the Copper are both poisonous. Keep away from children and pets, keep in a secure container clearly labelled. Always work in a well ventilated area and wear gloves and appropriate clothing.
I bought 3 more batches of dye stuff, all of which are supposed to produce green - I'm still in search of this elusive green! I used Tansy, Golden Rod and Weld each with a Tin, Copper and Alum mordant - and got yellow every time!!!!
A bit disheartened with the search for a natural green, so will try again in the future - and will maybe resort to Procion dyes.
Final dye batch for this chapter is Birch Bark used on fabric mordanted with Tin, Copper and Alum. These last 4 dye batches do clearly demonstrate the difference that the mordant can make to the final result. The tin produces a lighter and brighter colour. The Copper and Alum produce richer, darker colours - but I would always do a test batch first as the results are definitely not controllable or predictable - at least with the level of knowledge that I have.
I love your natural dyeing Kay! I was surprised at the range of colours that natural dyes can produce. I can't wait to see how you use them.
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