Category: PÃ¥ dansk

Herbal dyeing

PiaPÃ¥ dansk

“Red” sage 3:1 in rainwater. Left it rather long in the dyebath because nothing much seemed to be happening, came out a nice fresh green eventually, which has now been sent to solar testing.salvie

Purple basil 2:1, hard water. Plants boiled, yarn then solar dyed for 2 days. Dyebath blue, no pH alteration on my part. Rita Buchanan says it’s the same colour molecule as in Hollyhock, so it should be able to give blue and purple at other pH, I suspect red cabbage and black currant are in the same group, as they respond with the same colour scale. Hard to get onto the yarn and very fugitive. Also sent to solar testing in the bedroom window – I don’t have high hopes, but I’m wishing, because it’s such a nice green!basilikum2

When the purple basil grows back I’ll test it with tin mordant, I got a good purple with black currants.

It’s interesting that the unmordanted cotton ties turned blue, so I popped a failed cotton skein with 4 other layers on it into the exhaust. It would be interesting to test on silk as well.

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I’ve also prepared some jars for solar dyeing:

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Dyer’s chamomile, coreopsis, oregano, marigold,  tagetes, weld leaves.

Urtefarvningdanish

Ikke at jeg tror farverne er særligt lysægte, men det skulle lige prøves, farvning med rød basilikum og salvie. (jeg har også sået bronzefennikel, men de skal lige blive lidt større)

Salviegarnet skulle ligge ret lang tid før det tog farve, det samme gælder basilikum, som jeg valgte at solfarve i drivhuset et par dage. Farvebadet og bomuldssnorene blev blå, men uldgarnet blev grønt. Det skulle være samme farvemolekyle som stokroser, så det er nok ret pH følsomt, hvis man vil skrue lidt på farven.

Jeg har også gang i et par glas i drivhuset, hvor de bare står og gasser i solen. Fra venstre Farvegåseurt, Skønhedsøje, oregano, morgenfrue, tagetes og vau.

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cotton

Tagetes 2

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Testing the Tagetes patula “French Marigold” in the same way as the first batch.

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The dyebath was quite brown compared to the other tagetes, but in the end this skein also came out a strong yellow. They’re not completely the same hue, so this year I’ll probably continue testing them separately.

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Two years ago I also dyed with the same flower type and got 3 greens. I suspect that since one skein was copper mordanted, it simply poluted the dyebath, and not because the flowers or my method that year were any different.

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(looking rather metallic in the sun – they’re not really)

This is the reason I prefer modifying with iron and copper rather than mordant, even if I rinse the skeins well. But at least we know this dye can be modified, so I’ll be testing that as well. They may also become one of my choices for testing the rhubarb mordant vs. unmordant and alum in terms of colour and lightfastness.

Tagetes 1

Tagetes 3

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Samme test pÃ¥ denne tagetes som pÃ¥ den foregÃ¥ende, ogsÃ¥ med flot resultat. De tre grønne er fra forrige Ã¥r, hvor det ene var kobberbejset, sÃ¥ jeg mistænker at det har “forurenet” hele farvebadet. Men det kan jo ogsÃ¥ være interessant. Jeg foretrækker dog at tilføje jern og kobber efter farvning, af samme Ã¥rsag.

Horsetail – Agerpadderok

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equisetum / padderokke
equisetum arvense

2011:

Equisetum / Padderokke

2012:

svaleurtequisetum

2013:

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So, how did I achieve the first skein in a bright yellow colour? Young plants? Not using a lot of dyestuff?

I know they were a bit old this year, but the 2011 was photographed on June 28th and I don’t know if it had been just dyed or if it was a larger photosession (I see other yarns on the same day in my photo folder – no notes). And some old books state that you pick fully developed plants and then dry them before dyeing. Others say fresh and green. That’s usually May/early June here.

The other difference being, this year I solar dyed the yarn. Very greenish this time (in fact the same but a bit lighter as the Lady’s Mantle), whereas more in the brown direction last year.

Whether I’ll use this plant again or not, depends on the lightfastness test – I’m busy making strips to test for the next 2 months. Since so many plants give yellow, I’m actually more interested in developing the greens, so iron and copper could be interesting. The old books use chrome, but that’s no longer available here.

Incidentally, if you like a good beige, go for the spore thingies in early spring. According to said books.

PÃ¥ dansk

Jeg har testet padderok de sidste 3 år, første år har jeg ingen noter fra, så jeg gætter på at jeg måske har brugt meget friske, unge skud til den lysegule farve. Ulden fra 2012 er brungrumset, og årets garn, som er solfarvet 4 dage med ret gamle planter, er så blevet grønligt; det er faktisk samme farve som garnet med Løvefod, blot en tand lysere.

Jeg er gået i gang med at lave test for lysægthed, den vil bestemme om jeg vil farve med denne plante igen en anden gang.

Tagetes 1

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First test dye with this flower, I began with this type, Tagetes tenuifolia “lemon gem”:

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43 g of flowers to 25 g of alum/CoT mordanted yarn.

After 2 minutes in the lukewarm dye pot – do I see solar dyeing potential or what?!

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I’m going to try the other variety I have on its own too, same procedure, to see if they are different, or if I can just toss it all in one pot. I’m also going to see if I can dry them and use later.

Tagetes 2

Tagetes 3

tagetes3a

Appelsintagetes

Første forsøg plukker jeg hver slags tagetes for sig og farver et enkelt fed for at se hvordan det ser ud. Flere tests følger! Jeg tror de vil egne sig godt til solfarvning, se blot grydebilledet, hvor garnfeddet har ligget 2 minutter i det lune farvebad!

Jeg har her brugt 43 g blomster og 25 g garn.

Lady’s Mantle – Alchemilla – Løvefod

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One pot mostly flowers, one pot mostly leaves. Each “cooked” for a couple of hours, strained, wool added.

Very concentrated dyebaths, the leaves a toffee-tea colour, the flowers more towards yellow.

Wool with alum/CoT mordant.

I seem to think I’ve read that this plant gives grey/green, but until I’ve tested for lightfastness I’m not going to experiment with iron and other things. The hank is from the flower pot and the ball is from the leaf pot. No difference, really.

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alchemilla5

PÃ¥ dansk

Kogte to gryder, en med mest blomster, en med blade. Uld med alun/vinsten bejse dagen efter. Farvebadene var meget koncentrerede og mørkebrune. En anelse farveforskel, men garnfeddene er stort set ens.

Som regel, når jeg prøver en ny plante som ikke er en sikker vinder, så farver jeg først 1 fed inden jeg begynder at eksperimentere med jern og alt muligt andet. Tror nok jeg har læst et sted at løvefod kan give grå-grønlige nuancer? Det må tiden vise, tror jeg lystester disse først. Mit mål er fremover at primært arbejde med farveægte planter og til specifikke formål, bortset fra småtest af nye ting.

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