Mish mash? Pish tosh!


Are you ready for the big reveal? A little sneak peek before the jump: the vegetable matter and a hint of the glorious colour to come.

But first, a confession: THIS  is what it really looked like. The first time I did it.






































I opened it within 24 hours of hanging it up, because after doing some noodling around online I discovered that in order to have the colour remain somewhat fast, I needed either salt or vinegar at the beginning of the process.  So I unbundled it the next afternoon and found this sad looking little thing.

Wet, there was the tiniest hint of pale green from some of the leaves, some brownish smudges from the clover and the palest palest pink from the purple clematis (no colour whatsoever from the pink clematis); but I knew that everything but the purple and possibly the brown smudges would be gone once it dried.



So I added some more plant material and some thawed frozen blackberries (as well as some tumeric that was so old the package was a $1.39 for 150 grams - the new package I have is $3.00 for the same amount!)



And the second time around, I heated up a water/vinegar solution (four parts water to one part vinegar) and simmered my bundle on low for 2 hours, although I still didn't know how long it was supposed to have been simmered.  (You'll be happy to know I ordered my copy of Eco Colour and I'm picking it up later tonight.)

You'll also note that this bundle started out much pinker to begin with than the cherry bundle did. Go blackberries! Well, to be fair to the cherries, the juice from the formerly frozen blackberries helped a bit.

And then I stored it in its own liquid for good measure for four long days.



Having poured the liquid off - it looked rather unpreposessing; but when I unrolled it, I was practically dancing in the garden when I found this delicious looking sausage!


And then, (and THEN!) I unrolled it, washed it off with the garden hose and found this!!!!



I knew it would be lighter once dried, but hoped it would retain some of its intensity.

While I waited I stalked the cats while they stalked their prey -


Jessie the huntress!


And this is what it looked like when it dried. :)

So, no lovely greens or browns (I was pretty sure that the hosta leaves wouldn't leave any colour anyway); but the cherries are still evident and the blackberries coloured the fabric beautifully - not to mention the tumeric. Holy mackeral!

So.  Thus ends my first experiment with eco dyeing.

I feel quite certain there will be more to come!

Photobucket

Kit Lang

6 comments:

  1. Amazing - your new fabric looks wonderful ! I love the yellow (surprise ...) and it will be fun to see what you do with it! Hope that book arrives soon, so we can see more experiments ;-))

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  2. Una experiencia muy gratificante y llena de sorpresas!!!
    Me gustaría experimentar esta técnica ecológica!!

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  3. Turned out pretty! I would have a hard time cutting into that fabric!

    LaDonna

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  4. This is beautiful! I love that it's made from natural ingredients. I knew someone who dyed fabric for a dress using madder...

    Oh, here it is:

    http://www.festiveattyre.com/research/dyes/dyeing.html

    I love the salmon madder color but I also love your golden tumeric! Someday I'd like to give this a try.

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  5. It's lovely Kit! I can imagine it as delicate fused flower petals, or a scrumptious background to show off stich detail......gorgeous whatever it ends up becoming. I've never tried dyeing using natural materials, it looks FUN:) I once gathered loads of onion skins with good intentions but never got around to it:)) Can't wait to see what you discover next!

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  6. A fascinating technique and I look forward to hearing more about it.

    Nice to 'meet you' on line.

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