Category: PÃ¥ dansk

My new dye bed

PiaChit Chat

See that strip of yellow? Yes, dead grass, and I know some people (you know who you are too) are wrinkling their noses at me, but I need all the help I can get battling grass and weeds at the moment. Sorry….

Right now the ground is like concrete, but once the autumn rains begin, I’m thinking I can dig up that turf, make a nice edge, till the earth and next summer add some better material to plant in and put my dye plants here. Actually I need a place to put my strawberries as well, so I may have a lot of digging to do.

I already have weld, woad and dyer’s chamomile in my not-to-be vegetable garden. I meant it to be, but as hard as it is to battle weeds on a field of clay previously used for grain, it becomes impossible when a ton of thistle seeds are accidentally blown into the place covering it like a BLANKET, no kidding, it just becomes impossible. The mice ruin my new plum trees. So I have a few berry bushes in there, use the space as a tree nursery from time to time and to heck with it.

So my new plant list so far is (yes, I’ve been through “A Dyer’s Garden” for inspiration), it may change before spring:

  • Coreopsis tinctoria – I love how you can get both orange and yellow from this in the same dyebath and how little plant material is needed. Instant gratification!
  • Weld – Reseda luteola
  • Dyer’s Chamomile – Anthemis tinctoria
  • Telekia
  • Japanese indigo?
  • St. John’s Wort – Hypericum perforatum
  • Marjoram – origanum majorana
  • Bronze fennel – Foeniculum vulgare
  • Purple basil
  • Hollyhock?
  • Black eyed susan – Rudbeckia fulgida
  • Marigold – tagetes
  • Comfrey – symphytum

Goldenrod and tansy and purple loosestrife I can find in the forest. Others I already have on various parts of the property (10 acres).

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Farvebed

Jeg mÃ¥ desværre tage “det gule hakkejern” til hjælp i øjeblikket hvis jeg skal nÃ¥ haveopgaverne, sÃ¥ her har jeg gjort klar til mit forhÃ¥bentlig nye farvebed som jeg vil grave op og klargøre nÃ¥r vi fÃ¥r lidt vand til jorden, den er som beton lige nu. Et udmærket efterÃ¥rsprojekt?

Min køkkenhave, hvor den slags ellers skulle foregÃ¥, blev desværre overblæst med tidselfrø fra grønthøsteren, et tykt tæppe, sÃ¥ nu har jeg opgivet, der bor et par solbærbuske som med nød og næppe kan findes frem hver sommer….

Planteliste:

  • Coreopsis tinctoria – skønhedsøje. Orange og gul fra samme farvebad og masser af krudt i!
  • Anthemis tinctoria – farvegÃ¥seurt
  • Reseda luteola – Vau
  • Telekia – tusindstrÃ¥le
  • Japansk indigo?
  • Symphytum – kulsukker
  • Hypericum perforatum – sankthansurt
  • Havemerian – Origanum majorana
  • Bronzefennikel – Foeniculum vulgare
  • Sort stokrose
  • Rudbeckia fulgida – solhat
  • Tagetes

Round and round

PiaChit Chat

I love circles more than other shapes (maybe that’s why my brain tends to run in that direction as well, or is it the other way round? Ahem, anyway…..) so I’m always interested in circular artwork by other people too, no matter which medium. Circular flowerbeds, shamanic drums, circular shapes in nature.
So I just wanted to share this Australian gallery project on the theme of Circles. Cool, colourful, circular stuff!

Jeg fik lige lyst til at dele et link til et galleri i Australien hvor temaet er “Cirkler”. Det er min yndlingsform, sÃ¥ det interesserer mig altid hvad folk kreerer pÃ¥ den front.

Cloths part 1

PiaPÃ¥ dansk

Well, part 3 really. Since I already showed off some cloths from last year and blabbed about the new project in another post.

So, I made notes. I did not number those notes and match them with my buckets however…. lahdeedahh. Some I remember from description, but…

I was going to leave them all there FOREVER, but in less than a week some had taken on A LOT of colour in the fabric itself, the print part I couldn’t see of course. What to do? Open or leave them?! ARGH!

Ok, so I opened ONE. Seven days in. Hot weather (finally). And did recognize it after opening, so the registration is back on track.

This cloth had previously been soaked in red wine with a horse shoe on top. Then bundled with tansy, daylilies, something sunflower like and sage. Cold water bucket. I also poured in some exhaust from the tansy test halfway through, I think that’s what’s giving the olive green with the iron and also being the outer layers of the package. There goes my theory about tansy not reacting with iron!

I learned that you don’t get clear plant prints when submerging the cloth in fluid. So next thing would be add flowers to damp cloth and then not to use more water. I should probably go read my book….

In the mean time I’ve been cooking the rest of my cottons in tannins and aluminium acetate. So they should be ready for further experimentation. Next up if I come across old bedsheets etc. will be seawater and milk, and I’ve got some dried sumac bark from last year. I’ve also aquired some texts on dyeing with clay and rust among other things, can’t wait to dive into them. Bring on winter, see if I care! (Yeah, I said that last year too and spent the entire winter being sick = no crafting, but I’m not planning on a repeat). Silk fabrics, cellulose fiber yarns – lots to try! As well as trying out the procedure on wools for comparison with ordinary mordants. There’s no end to the experiments, somebody find me a huge grant?! 😀

Funny how boiled oak leaves left to steep for a few days, look and smell JUST like black tea. So I wonder if that’s the smell of tannic acid? I didn’t have a sip though 😉

 

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Plantefarvning på stof

Kort fortalt, jeg tester alle mulige måder at få plantefarve til at hæfte på bomuld. Garvesyre fra rødvin, egeblade, bark, aluminiumsulfat, havvand, mælk, jernopløsning. Første test var 4 forskellige spande med blomster og salvie rullet ind i lagner og puttet i spande i drivhuset.

Efter en uge hev jeg første bundt op og har bl.a. lært at man ikke fÃ¥r tydelige print af blomsterne ved at have stoffet liggende i væske, der skal man nok sarte med fugtigt stof og sÃ¥ snøre blomsterne ind og lade være. Jeg kunne ogsÃ¥ studere lidt først, men det er typisk mig at bare prøve noget. Jeg burde nok tage og fÃ¥ læst min bog om emnet! Jeg har ogsÃ¥ fÃ¥et fat i nogen e-bøger om at farve med ler, rust og andet sjovt. Vinteren kan bare komme an og gerne med en del mindre sygdom end den sidste, hvor jeg sagde det samme og sÃ¥ blev det bare til nul spinding! 🙁

Jeg skal ogsÃ¥ have spundet nogen forskellige plantefibre og teste med dem, mÃ¥ske silkestof? Nogen som vil donere noget kedeligt hvidt bomuldsgarn? 😉

Kogte egeblade som har trukket et par dage lugter fuldstændig som og ligner sort the. Gad vide om det simpelthen er garvesyre der lugter sÃ¥dan? Jeg smagte dog ikke pÃ¥ det….

Jeg lader stoffet tørre mellem hver behandling, jeg håber det sætter sig og ikke bliver vasket ud i næste omgang, men de kloge påstår jo at det kan lade sig gøre på den måde.

Teensy tansy tests

PiaPÃ¥ dansk

1400 g Tanacetum vulgare. Boil, leave for 3 days due to stupor.

First, simmer one mordanted skein for 20 minutes. VERY sunny. More so than the photo below shows (1st skein on the left).

Then enter 2 more skeins + some unmordanted fleece. Take out yarns after half an hour, put one in ammonia soak.

Enter two mystery skeins, previously dyed a dull grey-yellow last year. Leave in fleece. Simmer an hour, then cool in the pot.

Quick iron dip seemed to do nothing much (unlike the Dyer’s chamomile for instance, which just needs a quick dip to turn the yarn olive green) so that’s the skein that had an alkaline modifier. You could leave the ammonia in the yarn for an even deeper bronze, but it’s not good for the wool, so I didn’t, and most of it rinsed out.

CORRECTION AUGUST 21st: After unwrapping one of my cloth experiments, I can say that tansy does react with iron giving a strong olive. In this case however the iron was in the cloth first, i.e. as a mordant, then tansy cold dye poured on as an afterthought. Noteworthy I think!

The mystery skeins were slightly altered, quite greenish. Despite the large amount of dyestuff to yarn, I felt the pot was exhausted, seems like the first skein sucked up all the good stuff. One could use this for a series of yarns from dark to pale by entering one skein at a time and/or leaving in for different amounts of time. I can’t help thinking that a 1:1 dye ratio would give a rather dull shade…

mystery skeins before

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Rejnfan

En lille hurtig test med stor plantemængde i forhold til garn – i alt 5 nøgler á 35 g + en hÃ¥ndfuld uld. Suffolk tror jeg. 1400 g blomster, kogt en time, derefter trukket 3-4 dage.

Først kom jeg 1 bejset bundt i og simrede ca. 20 minutter, hvorefter det var meget mørkt og solgult (mere end på billedet).

Så puttede jeg to mere i, samt en håndfuld vasket men ubejset uld. De fik nok en halv time, det ene dyppede jeg i jern uden at der skete noget, så i stedet kom det i ammoniakbad, hvilket gav en dyb bronze farve. Når man skyller mister man lidt af gløden, men det er jo ikke så godt for uld at være basisk, så det må jeg leve med. Men muligheden foreligger hvis man ønsker.

RETTELSE: efter at have pakket en af mine stofpakker op, kan jeg se at hvis man bruger jern FØRST, som bejse, så giver rejfan faktisk en kraftig oliven/jægergrøn farve!

Ulden lod jeg ligge og puttede så to kedelige brungule fed i, som jeg ikke kan huske hvad de er farvet med. De blev noget grønlige af den tur, absolut forbedrede, og sjovt nok mere ens end da de kom i. De fik en time + afkøling.

Og så syntes jeg farvebadet så lidt svagt ud, det første fed må virkelig have suget til sig af farvestofferne. Det kan man jo udnytte netop til at skabe en gradueret skala af gul fra kraftig til bleg. Hvor gult det bliver når man bruger 1:1 plante og garn fik jeg ikke afprøvet, men jeg tror måske jeg vil holde mig til den kraftige suppe hvis der skal være lidt pang.

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Sunday swatch

PiaPÃ¥ dansk

The coming week I think I feel like spinning, although I still have sleeve syndrome. So be it. I hope I get the time in between all my appointments!

This is just one of project palettes that I’m contemplating. Plant dyed silk in the middle, merino for the rest.

Ugens spindeprojekt

Hvis ellers jeg har tid og ork mellem alle mine aftaler. Så må vi se, om jeg får gjort noget ved mine ærmer eller ej.

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