While I was in town I stopped at the florist to see if they had some wilted flowers or leaf cuttings I could use to dye with. This is what she gave me. I have them all over the house and will enjoy them until they start to wilt. The smell is heavenly!
Here is where I have tried to organize my natural dye stuff. My sweet DH is so understanding,
This used to be the office as you can tell by the real wood blinds and Ralph Lauren paper on
the walls. The Oriental rug has been taken to storage leaving the concrete floor.
Old Patron liquor bottles make wonderful dye extraction jugs. These were put together
this morning with acorns, the one on the left with ammonia and the right with alcohol.
I love that the extraction was almost instantaneous and you can see the dye coming off the nuts.
This is a tray of lichen we gathered on our walk the other day. After it is dry, I will crush it to extract the dye.
The color will depend a lot on the mordant I use.
I hope you enjoyed this little peek inside my spot. We have our eyes open for an old kitchen sink and cabinet to make a wet area.
With all the talk about black walnuts on the Quiltart list I decided that since I live where they are plentiful that I would dye some cotton. Thanks to my DH who picked all these up on our last camping trip.
The first photo is the start of the pot. I decided to do the direct mordant method since I’m not a dyer. I have soft water so all I did was add Alum and Cream of Tartar to the pot.
Of course the fabric was scoured first. Also, the cotton I use is a pima cotton with a slight gray cast to it. Hey, it was a monster roll at a yard sale for $5 so I always use what I have.
The bottom photos are the results of this dye pot. I tried different rinses according to my book “Colors From Nature” but there was no noticeable difference in the pieces when they dried.
I also wasn’t concerned with even color since I really like the little oddities that come about from not stirring the pot. Now I have added some previously dyed fabrics to the pot along with cotton batting and some cheese cloth. They will come out tomorrow and I will post the results.
JP Dawes Contemporary Artist 