On our recent 3 day retreat, we again attempted eco-dyeing/printing with plant material, steeped in various types of wood chips. They were gifted to me by talented blogger friend Robbie....see her work here. http://robbiespawprints.blogspot.com
Another good fiber friend in Arizona passed along a couple of yummy yards of fabric.....several being silk.
After our first failure with this method, I spent hours and hours again studying different approaches to natural dyeing. We decided this time to use an Alum mordant for the fabric AND the leaves.
Next, we added our prepared fabric that had been rolled onto wood dowels. Finally, we added boiling water and covered the containers with black plastic and let steep in the hot South Carolina heat for 24 hrs.
Well, dang......we opened one of the rolls and this is what mine looked like after all that effort!!
We don't give up easily.....next we moved the contents of the container into a shallow metal pan and simmered it for about 4 hours.
More to come as I go through my photos....I was a picture taking fool on this trip!
3 comments:
There is such a fine line in mordants/fabrics in natural dyeing. I know lots of folks who do the steaming...I boiled my chips to make a 'dye solution'...then soaked my fabric in alum. I just put in a container. The ones I rolled with leaves/etc. didn't turn out well either! But you had fun and that's what it's all about!
such a sham your dyeing did not work but good to read you continued and dyed another way
How frustrating! It does take some practice Mary but you need to learn some specific methods.Of course you can read my blog posts on the subject but in addition, I'll give you some links to start:
https://www.facebook.com/groups/1925589170998864/
https://www.facebook.com/groups/360724454075202/
https://wendyfe.wordpress.com/plants-for-eco-dyeing-and-eco-printing/
https://wendyfe.wordpress.com/tutorial-leaf-monoprinting-by-cassandra-tondro/
Good luck and email me if I can help.
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