Sunday, June 21, 2015

More of Nature's Colors

Here are the results of last Sunday's dye session for Fiber Arts Day at the Huntington Library and Botanical Gardens.  These are, from left to right: madder, cabbage (alkaline bath), cabbage (acidic bath), wild lettuce, walnut leaves, nasturtium blossom.  And from top to bottom, the mordants were alum, copper and iron.

The madder came out less orangey than usual.  I'm pleased with these more muted reds.  The cabbage was just to try, for fun; I'm not sure how washfast or lightfast those will turn out to be.  The nasturtium blossoms were a disappointment: despite the beautiful magenta-colored liquid they made, the wool only turned a dull beige.

The most spectacular for me was the walnut. Can you believe this dark, rich brown came from fresh green leaves?  And it is supposed to be its own mordant due to the tannins.  I can't believe I've lived with this walnut tree for 24 years and have never dyed with it.  I'll certainly be doing more with walnut.
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8 comments:

  1. Vlaďka CepákováJune 21, 2015 at 9:55 AM

    Beautiful colours. I am surprise of your cabbage colour because I get usually only gray.

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    1. Deanna DeedsJune 23, 2015 at 8:55 AM

      The lavender is sort of a grayed lavender. For that one, I added distilled vinegar to the bath. For the blueish-green one I added washing soda (soda ash). They're both pretty pale and may fade.

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  2. MernaJune 21, 2015 at 11:09 AM

    What a nice array, Deanna! How interesting that you only needed the walnut leaves to get such a rich color - I might beg some from you sometime.

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    1. Deanna DeedsJune 23, 2015 at 8:55 AM

      Thanks, Merna. Just let me know and I'll collect a bucketful for you. :)

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    2. weavespinJune 24, 2015 at 6:38 PM

      Diana, These look great! How about using a color fixative to those that you are worried about?
      Love, Nancy

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    3. Deanna DeedsJune 26, 2015 at 11:08 AM

      Thanks, Nancy; can you recommend one?

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  3. KrisJune 28, 2015 at 11:13 AM

    Deena, I've also gotten a gorgeous mahogany brown from black walnut leaves this year after having read that they gave a "nice tan" in several natural dye books. This intense color may be the result of the drought with tannins being really concentrated in the leaves. I've found some trees as not even having nuts developing this year.

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    Replies
    1. Deanna DeedsJune 28, 2015 at 11:28 AM

      That's an interesting thought, Kris. You could be right.

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