Home dyeing

[Hinotori]

I've been experimenting with natural dyeing. I'm making some beeswax bowl wraps and figured I could practice dyeing on them first. I mordanted some sections of tea towels I cut to size in alum.

Mordants help make the color stay in the fabric but also effect it's shade. I've been using food safe ones so far and not harsher chemicals. Alum and iron. Iron darkens colors and is easy enough to make. Fine steel wool in a vinegar and water mix.

Do not do this inside. Some of the smell didn't go away for weeks and that was with food items used to dye. Some dyes can release nasty stuff as well.

First ones went in a hibiscus dye. Really strong hibiscus tea and vinegar. Came out looking light pink/purple which turned more blue as it dried. Full light heather blue after 2 days. Even kept in the dark it turned light grey after a couple weeks. I didn't think it was so poor on the light fast. I know it's not very good on the wash fast.

This is after drying

Second pot was turmeric with vinegar. Turmeric is wonderful to work with. I don't know if it even needs the vinegar. I do know it doesn't need a mordant. Pull it out when it hits the depth of color you want. Turmeric is wash fast but not light fast. It does last a very long time.

Again after dry

I collected moss and lichen from where it gets blown off my trees. Separated it by type. Lots of lichen since I know those work. I put some in half gallon jars with 2 cups ammonia and 4 cups water. I have to shake oxygen into them every day preferably to develope the color. 3 months of sitting and I'll strain for usable dye.

The lichen on the right is supposed to produce a bright purple or pink dye. We have literal tons of it so I'll collect more over time. It grows on everything. I'm going to dye some napkins with it I think. I have fabric resist so I may over dye a green as well, or just make a green ink dye to decorate. The colors should complement.

I'm really thinking about putting in a small dye garden. I can collect a lot of wild items to get greens, browns, and light yellows. Those are the most common colors.

 

[milkmansdaughter]

@Hinotori, thanks! I like how you explained each part with pictures. This is really interesting! That Tumeric fabric is a great color. Does it leach out onto other things if you throw it in the wash?

 

[Hinotori]

I only washed the dyes out. I can put a piece in some water and detergent and see if it leaches tomorrow. I'll try and see what my books say. It's a popular dye in India so I can look around and see what I find.

That hibiscus dye really disappointed me.

I've been interested in dyeing for years. I just needed a reason to dye something.

Mom couldn't understand why I was using natural dyes. I wanted something that might touch food to be safe. The wax mixture to make the wraps is nontoxic as well. Beeswax, powdered pine resin or copal, jojoba oil. That is supposed to give it proper tackiness that just beeswax doesn't have.

 

[milkmansdaughter]

Are you rolling the fabric? I'm looking at the lines on the turmeric fabric. It looks rolled. We've dyed t-shirts before using Kool-ade. On those we grabbed a section and used rubber bands to hold it and then dunked each section in different dyes.

 

[Hinotori]

Shibori technique. Lots of folding. Then tied it. Some pieces had stiff pieces on plastic sandwiching it.

That one was just folded and tied

 

[Britesea]

woad, madder, weld, indigo....

 

[Hinotori]

Woad is a nasty invasive. There are severe fines here. Which sucks as this climate is perfect.

Indigo won't grow here, unfortunately.

I wish there was a blue I could grow.

 

[tortoise]

Woad is a nasty invasive. There are severe fines here. Which sucks as this climate is perfect.

Indigo won't grow here, unfortunately.

I wish there was a blue I could grow.

Try black carrots? https://www.rareseeds.com/black-nebula-carrot/

Should be able to get a slate blue with alum

 

[Hinotori]

On the turmeric dyed fabric. More came out with the detergent. I went looking and it tends to fade for about the first three washes.

I think I'd wash it only with like colors for the first few.

 

[Hinotori]

Oh. Any of the dye recipes that call for ammonia, you can use aged urine. It will make for a darker shaded pigment versus just ammonia.

One of my older dye books talks about it as it's a traditional item for dyeing and tanning.