I chose a beautiful sunny Sunday to pick a bushel of dandelion flowers in full yellow bloom. Great way to reduce dandelion seeds floating through the air but more importantly, a neat way to make a natural yellow dye.
After about an hour of collecting just the yellow flower heads, I put them on the stove to boil. The wonderful sieve and pot I bought at Value Village wasn't such a bargain as the pot has a small hole! There was water everywhere on the top of the stove.
I transferred the flowers into two pots. In one there was a sieve to keep the plants strained, in the other pot the flowers floated in the water. Once the hour of boiling and sitting till the mixture was cool was over, it was noticeable that the sieve flower water dye was more yellow than the other pot of dye which looked more of a greenish brown. Interesting!? Would these two dye differently?
In order for dye to penetrate wool fibers it needs to be treated with a mordant. I chose to use alum and cream of tartar as that is what I had on hand and also because it is not toxic like other mordants. Once the wool yarn and mordant had boiled and cooled, I transferred the wet yarn into two different vats of dye. The wool dye mixture was slowly brought to a boil and then left overnight. The next day I rinsed the wool yarn and set it outside in the shade to dry.
The finished product looks wonderful. The yellow is a dusty hue, not vibrant, but very natural looking. I didn't notice any significant difference in the yellow produced by the two dyes. I think this was a successful experiment!
After about an hour of collecting just the yellow flower heads, I put them on the stove to boil. The wonderful sieve and pot I bought at Value Village wasn't such a bargain as the pot has a small hole! There was water everywhere on the top of the stove.
I transferred the flowers into two pots. In one there was a sieve to keep the plants strained, in the other pot the flowers floated in the water. Once the hour of boiling and sitting till the mixture was cool was over, it was noticeable that the sieve flower water dye was more yellow than the other pot of dye which looked more of a greenish brown. Interesting!? Would these two dye differently?
In order for dye to penetrate wool fibers it needs to be treated with a mordant. I chose to use alum and cream of tartar as that is what I had on hand and also because it is not toxic like other mordants. Once the wool yarn and mordant had boiled and cooled, I transferred the wet yarn into two different vats of dye. The wool dye mixture was slowly brought to a boil and then left overnight. The next day I rinsed the wool yarn and set it outside in the shade to dry.
The finished product looks wonderful. The yellow is a dusty hue, not vibrant, but very natural looking. I didn't notice any significant difference in the yellow produced by the two dyes. I think this was a successful experiment!
An awful lot of dandelion flowers!!
Left pot has flowers immersed in water, right pot has a strainer.
The resulting dyes:
Left pot (flowers immersed) greenish brown, right (sieve) amber.
Preparing hand-spun wool yarn with a mordant.
Wool yarn in mordant; needs to reach a boil slowly so as not to felt or mat the fibres.
Resulting yarn colour. Can you tell which one was in which vat of dye?
(Neither can I. I guess it doesn't matter whether flowers are immersed or strained.)
Drying outside in the shade with a bit of tension.
No comments:
Post a Comment