Walwa Mini- Break mission.

August 21, 2015 in Natural Dyes, Research, Textiles

The mountains across the valley still shrouded in misty fog at 4:34pm.

Recently we went on a mini-break weekend away to the bush retreat that is my folks house. I decided to pack my dye pots too!

I was also grateful that I'd remembered to pack my scarf and beanie and warm woollen things as it was a very cold weekend, most day we did not see the sun till well into the afternoon!

Braving the elements though I did manage to get some sampling done with foliage picked from the garden and something I'd read about in someone else's blog that I wanted to try, black turtle beans.

Black Turtle Beans

I had been doing some reading of other dyestuffs I might try especially in the pursuit of making blues and mauve's. I came across several bloggers who had tried black turtle beans.

http://knitwhatyouexpected.blogspot.com.au/2013/04/how-to-make-blue-using-black-turtle.html

https://waysofthewhorl.wordpress.com/2011/04/12/natural-dyeing-take-3-black-beans/

I did three pots of black bean experiments, the beans were soaked overnight and the quite purplish/ blue liquid carefully drained off the top and separated into three pots.

Bean liquor plus Alum- resulted in a pale mauve/ blue.
Bean liquor plus Alum and vinegar- resulted in a pale mauve/ blue (with more red than the first sample)
Bean liquor plus soda ash- no result.

Angophora

I wanted to try the leaves of the Angophora because although they may look like a Eucalyptus they are actually part of the Myrtle family, so I was keen to see what sort of colours they might supply.

no mordant- result beige/ brown
mordant copper- result olive green

Banksia Giant Candles

I think a darker yellow/orange could have been achieved had I simmered the candles for longer. I would also recommend draining the liquid off before adding the yarn due to the large amount of vegetable matter that came off the candles.

mordant Alum- result pale lemon yellow

Lemon scented Gum

Similar results to the Angophora samples, smells delicious whilst simmering!

no mordant- result beige/ brown
mordant copper- result dark olive green

Salt bush

I did not use any mordants for this sample, the colour is an amazing bright mint green (brighter then the above picture) I will revisit this dyestuff at a later date to see how other mordants change the colour.

Utilising the precious little bit of sun.

Eucalyptus cineraria, Angophora bark, Grevillia robusta, native pine (?), exotic pine (?), Salt bush.

The set-up under the veranda.

The only place to be in the depths of winter.

Double double, toil and trouble.....

June 14, 2015 in Natural Dyes, Inspiration, Research

Further exploration of natural dyestuffs.

My son got home from school today and said "What ya been doin today Mum?"

" More Dyeing" I replied

" Really!?" He said, " Surely you've run out of white wool!!"

" Yes" I replied "That's why I went to the shop and brought some more" :-)

Wattle

This time round my wattle leaves were a little dried out by the time I went to use them, I am not sure but I think the results were better with freshly harvested leaves.

For these two samples I used Cootamundra Wattle and Silver Wattle.

Wattle leaves simmered for about 30 mins

With Alum the wattle leaves give more golden yellow tones.

So from my experiments with wattle I have got yellows when mordanted with Alum, a range of greens when mordanted with copper and darker greens through to browns when iron is added.

Beetroot

Beets chopped and simmered for about 20 mins

with alum- Orange
with alum & vinegar- Deep Burgundy red

Both samples soaked in dyestuff overnight.

Leaves and storks, simmered for about 20 mins

with alum- Yellow
with alum and vinegar - Pinkish orange

Both samples soaked in dyestuff overnight.

I was pleasantly surprised by the range of colours I obtained from the beetroot. I have read varying reports on it's colourfastness, so we'll have to wait and see.

Cochineal

Cochineal as I have discovered is an awesome dyestuff! Easy to use and great results. It is made from insects that live on a particular type of cactus somewhere in South America. I wish we had a local bug with these spectacular properties!

Mordant Alum, soda ash and 1 tspn cream of tartar- peachy pink
Mordant Alum- Orangey red
Mordant Alum, vinegar added to dybath - Bright red
Mordant Alum, iron added to dyebath- Deep red

Henna

I have used Henna to dye my hair before, but never for yarn. It produces vary earthy colours. ( The photo does not quite capture the colours.)

Mordant Alum- Earthy Orange.
Mordant Alum, iron added to dyebath- Olive green.

I think I will do some further testing with the Henna later, try adding cream of tartar and perhaps see how it reacts to copper.

My son thought he'd do some of his own natural dyeing, so he colected up some leaves and put them in a pot of water. When I came outside to start work today it was frozen solid in the pot!

Indigo/ Indigo Australis

Many moons ago I watched some of my fellow Textiles students produce work using an indigo dye vat. I always loved indigo blue but the process was a bit of a mystery because it is quite different to other dyeing processes.

Indigo powder is a plant extract and you need to prepare the dyebath carefully to get results. It is quite a magical process, you pull out yellowish green yarn from the vat and as it oxidises it turns blue before your eyes.

The yarns pictured were dipped from once to six times to produce light through to dark shades.

I have also discovered that we have a native indigo, Indigofera australis that will produce the trademark indigo blue colour. It is native to my area and in fact grows on Mt Majura. I am growing some of my own in the garden and will be able to test it out in the future.

I feel like I am not far off achieving my naturally dyed rainbow of yarns, I think it is something you could experiment with forever and still be making new discoveries. Some of the things I've tried I may not use again because the results aren't as good, as colourfast or I can get similar or better reults from another material. I like the idea of using materials that I've grown or that are sourced from around me, it kind of adds to the environmentally friendly aspect of natural dyeing. I find it quite rewarding to produce gorgeous colours from natural materials without all the nasty chemicals.

Retreat to textiles.

June 02, 2015 in Textiles, Other Artwork, Natural Dyes

I enjoy painting but every so often I do feel the lure and pull of textiles and I simply have to do something with them! This may include a bit of sewing or knitting and crochet or something more adventurous like my recent exploration of Natural dyes. I have been experimenting and trying to cover a fuller pallete of colours, I also have come up with an idea to use some of the beautifully coloured yarns that have resulted, and try a new technique.

Natural dyeing

Further experiments with some different dye- stuffs and mordants.

Tumeric powder- Bright yellow.
Ivy leaves- pale greens, dark greens with copper or iron added.
Marigold flowers- Yellows, orange, pale green.
Ballart native cherry- Amazing bright greens. (my photos don't quiet capture the colour)
Thai black rice- mauve, grey with iron added
Eucalyptus- Orange, russet, brighter orange with Alum added, browns with iron added.
Wattles- Knife leafed wattle,Cootamundra wattle and Silver wattle- a range of pale yellowish greens to pale greens, Khaki greens with iron or copper added.

Three types of wattle, Ballart native cherry, Ivy leaves

Wattle, mordants added.

Marigold flowers, Thai black rice, Eucalyptus

I feel like I have covered a range of greens, yellow, oranges and browns but have yet to achieve a good range of red, purples, mauves through to blue. I have been doing some reading about how some of the commonly used plant materials for dyes produce fugitive colours, that means they fade readily. Only time and experience will tell. More experimenting and some research neccessary!

Stay tuned as I still have to have a play with Henna, Cochineal, Beetroot and Indigo, hopefully then I'll have a rainbow of yarns.

Rug Making

My Mum recently took part in a workshop on rug making and she showed me some of the basics so I thought I'd have a go and use my natural dyed yarns for the project. This style of rug making is called 'Hooky' but I believe it is known by many names. It is a very traditional rug making technique and can be made with yarns or with strips of rag. It is made by drawing up loops through a base cloth, in this case hessian and it creates a loop pile surface to the rug. There are dedicated tools for this, the hooks have a short shank and are quite thick. I did not have one of those so a crochet hook has served the purpose reasonably well.

I decided to start small, around doormat sized and go with a really basic design, in fact once I started I simplified it even more.( eliminating the crosses you can see marked on the hessian)

I will post some more progress photos as it grows.

First block complete.

Close up.