Tag: plants

False chamomile – Lugtløs kamille

PiaPÃ¥ dansk

Scentless chamomile, wild chamomile, mayweed, Matricaria perforata.

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If you don’t have the time or space to grow specific dye plants, there is plenty to be found in the wild. I wanted to do a comparison of chamomiles and decided to use the method of extraction described by Leena in Finland. She suggests that you can get more dyestuff out of the plant by making the water alkaline. When the dye has cooled it returns magically to a neutral pH, you can then add the wool without harming it. I did one pot with just regular boiling of plants, the other with 1 tbsp. of potash. One alum skein and one unmordanted in each pot. As you can see, the yarn from the alkaline extraction is a lot darker! If your bath is not quite neutral enough after cooling, you can add a small slosh of vinegar, the extra dye will still be in there.

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I think this yellow is just as good as Dyer’s Chamomile, remains to be seen if there’s a difference in permanence. Of course you won’t get the orange that the Anthemis tinctoria provides just with enough dyestuff, but the alkaline method works to get a fair orange (not as vibrant) and for yellow it’s a good and cheap source, available all summer in your nearest ditch. I used the whole plant, so no careful picking of flower heads either.

You will need to use the fresh plants, though, no freezing or drying. I also used a huge dye ratio, like 15:1, so that is another difference. Not that it matters, it’s so abundant where it is. The dye ratio however doesn’t really show in the unmordanted skeins, so perhaps they would come out with no colour at all at a lower rate. Mordanted yarn should give a less golden, clearer yellow at a lower ratio and with iron I’m assuming you could get some sort of olive colour.

Tomorrow we’ll try a different chamomile!

på danskdanish

Lugtløs kamille er ideel at farve med, hvis man ikke har farveplanter i sin have, eller slet ingen have. Den breder sig lystigt på kornmarker hvis den får lov og helt sikkert alle andre steder som ikke sprøjtes.

Jeg besluttede mig for at teste en metode til at trække mere gul ud af planten ved at gøre vandet basisk med potaske, ca. en spsk. til en stor 8 l. gryde. NÃ¥r vandet sÃ¥ har kogt og er kølet ned igen, falder pH værdien igen til neutral – hvis ikke kan man tilsætte en lille sjat eddike – den ekstra farve er stadig i vandet.

Jeg lavede en identisk gryde uden base, og som det ses på billedet er den en del lysere. Den orange farve er ikke helt ligeså klar som med farve-gåseurt, jeg har også brugt en hel del mere plante (15:1), men det er da et fint alternativ. De to fed i midten er ikke blevet bejset først. Med tanke på den enorme mængde planter jeg brugte, så tænker jeg, at det ikke kan betale sig at farve ubejdset garn, men med alun kan man godt nøjes med mindre mængder og stadig få en flot gul. Med jern vil jeg tro man kan få olivengrøn eller noget i den henretning.

Man kan ikke tørre eller fryse vild kamille og farve senere, som man kan med gåseurt, det skal bruges frisk.

I morgen prøver vi med en anden slags kamille!

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

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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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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Point and shoot

PiaGallery

I found out that my new to me little pocket camera actually does quite good macros. I can’t see a thing on the display outdoors though, so I’ve developed a new (to me) style of taking pictures. I simply wave it around, try to point it in the general direction of something and click. Play with over- and underexposures in the sun etc. The macro lens I have for my SLR is a 90 mm and gives a completely different perspective compared to the wide angle of a tiny camera.

For starters I’ve been doing garden walks since so many things are in bloom right now, but I’ll continue to explore this method time and again just to get out of my regular groove. How about deliberate out of focus for instance? The columbines are going now, so I promise next time it will be something else…

The photos are unprocessed apart from resizing – exposure and colour are all from fiddling with camera settings. No crops. Some have been more deliberately composed, most are randomly aimed at the target.

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