My most recent obsession, because I am ridiculously wedded to the idea that I can figure out how to do almost anything myself, is creating a range of vibrant dye colors from plants I can grow or gather here in southern PA. This becomes problematic when you realize that very nearly every local indigenous plant will produce fabulous shades of…beige. Or the ever exciting pale yellowy-green. Bleh. No wonder Natty Bumppo could blend into the landscape. He didn’t have much choice. There are however, some fabulous exceptions, and if you venture to the far east or south, even more fabulousness occurs.
With this fabulousness in mind, some friends and I recently spent a day seeing what we could do with a variety of both local and exotic natural dyes, and a variety of fleeces from the Boys of Studio E.
With the advent of a deck, my back porch has become the third studio space in my home, and the perfect place for a dye kitchen. No fear of poisoning myself or my pets, and very few worries about spills or clean up!
We had placed our fleece in a mordant bath the night before. Mordants are the pretreatments for fabric or fleece that help the dye colors ‘stick’. We used a solution of alum and cream of tartar; probably the most common and easy to find, as well as non-toxic.
We laid out all of our tools and supplies–scales, tubs and pitchers, dye modifiers, a grinder for tough seeds, and the dye-stuffs.
Most dyes need heat at some point in the process, so we set up outdoor burners and kettles, and the fun began!
The two brightest and most successful dyes were madder root (an orange red native to Asia originally, but cultivated in Europe since Viking times) and cochineal (a bright fuschia derived from a South American beetle)
We also experimented with:
annatto seeds–a medium orange using seeds from South America
Copper/Ammonia–produces blue-greens
black walnut–dark browns
Here are our results!
Great colors, great fun, great results–I’m calling this one a success!
If you are interested in a natural dyes workshop for fleece or fabric, please contact Studio E. Workshops are one six-hour day and include lunch. Prices depend on materials desired and number of participants–come on out and release your inner artist!
–Photo credit to wildheartstudio.net. Click on over and check out great stuff!
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