Another Dye Day

Yesterday was the third annual Fiber Day I've participated in at the Huntington Library and Gardens.  Weavers and spinners were there demonstrating, as well as us dyers.  The dyeing we do at this event feature dyestuffs from plant materials.  This year I tried dyeing with kamala (Mallotus philippensis) and indigo (Indigofera tinctoria).

Top row, kamala on wool premordanted with (left to right) iron, copper and alum.  Bottom row, left to right, indigo on unmordanted wool, and indigo overdip on the same three kamala-dyed as above.  The indigo was such a strong color it overpowered the yellows, so I got teals instead of the greens I was after, but still pretty.

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.

Dye Day at the Gardens Again

This coming Sunday is Fiber Arts Day at the Huntington Library and Botanical Gardens.  It was such a nice day last year I'm participating again.  Fellow SCHG member Jamie and I will be dyeing using various plant materials, across the Herb Garden from the Tea Room.  Other area guild members will be demonstrating spinning and weaving.

Here are the colors I got at last year's session, using madder, Navajo tea, cutch and logwood.  This year I've selected a less exotic selection of local plants I hope will be easier for visitors to relate to:  madder again because it grows like a weed in my yard, black walnut leaves, a weed called wild lettuce, and ... red cabbage!  What colors will I get with these?  Join us at the Gardens to see, or you'll have to wait until I post the results!

Weeds - Fodder for the Dye Pot!

At our last guild meeting Jamie led a great workshop on natural dyeing.  We tried something I hadn't used before - wild lettuce, a common weed.  It gave a light greenish yellow on wool.  And lucky me, I have a bumper crop this year.

Natural Dyeing in the Garden

The Huntington Library & Gardens held their Fiber Arts Day on midsummer's day, and several local guilds including mine (Southern California Handweavers) were represented by various members demonstrating spinning, weaving and dyeing.  I was in the dyeing camp.  The Garden, of course, wanted us to feature plant dyes.

Here are all the colors I got, from just four dye pots.  From top to bottom the rows are: madder root, osage orange wood chips, cutch resin, and logwood dust.  Each column is a different premordant on white wool: left to right are alum, iron and copper mordants.  Because I used a premordant method, I was able to simmer the differently-mordanted skeins in the pot simultaneously, and get different colors.

It was quite a pleasant way to spend a lovely Saturday, with the weather not too hot or cool, an ideal spot with shade, and visitors to the garden strolling by all day interested in what we were doing.

This was my view over my dye pot.  I took this one with my camera phone, which is apparently not a very good one and the image is saturated, but you can get an idea of the herb garden where we were working.  The building in the background is the Tea Room where you can have Tea (the meal) if you make a reservation.

And here's a picture my fellow guild member took of me over the dye pot.  What's the saying, "I want to dye happy"?

I saved the liquid in gallon jugs when we were done.  The logwood came out such a dark blue-black with both the iron and copper that I want to try doing an exhaust bath or series of baths, to see if they are as blue as they look.

Madder - Rubia tinctorum

I did some dyeing last weekend with madder root.  I planted some a few years ago, and it has taken over the back yard like a weed, so I decided I need to learn to like reds and pinks.

The fabrics in the top of the photo were some samples I thought might be towels, but they are a little stiff, so I'm going to repurpose them into something else.  The photo is showing both faces of the fabric.  The warp was kind of a tan color and I think the overdye improved the color.

The bottom fabric is just some unbleached muslin I threw in the pot.  I had the pieces of root in the dyebath with the fabric.  The darker spots of red are where they made direct contact with the fabric.