so...i'm taking fiber out of dye jars and getting lovely and interesting results. I have learned that if you go into natural dyeing with few expectations you'll be happier...sometimes results are not at all what you expect. this particular silk is using a combination mordant (alum and copper) and dyed with daylilies. For people who asked...pic daylilies as the day that they bloom ends...Here is an example of rather odd results.
Marigolds are supposed to yield bright yellow results...this particular marigold look fairly green to green-ish yellow. ODD.
Here i have some silk dyed in an unlabeled exhaust pot (oops!). on the right is the silk rinsed right out of the dye pot. middle, a vinegar dip, left amonia dip. i took the silk out of the dye pot and divided it into 3 parts, so this is the same dye pot even! wild...
i don't use distilled water (which is bad i know :-)
this makes me suspect that black hills water is somewhat acid.
Here's the same thing with silk dyed in Poppies.
Not as wild a difference, but definitely a response.
Here's Daylily directly out of the dye pot.
Here's some of the above daylily separated off...right vinegar, left amonia.so cool! here they are...left, ammonia; middle, vinegar; right no dip!
1 comment:
I always suspected our Black Hills water to be alkali, not acidic -- the reason? -- all the lime that builds up on the bottom of my tea kettle, etc. Or on pretty much anything else where water can evaporate -- flower pots, the taps from the sinks, the fill line around the fish tank... That stuff more or less dissolves with Lime Away, or CLR or etc., all of which contain weak acid, which argues alkali in the water.
I know we are supposed to have fairly hard water here, but I don't know what exactly is involved in water being called "hard" other than I think a high mineral content. Would whatever department monitors water quality for the state have an analysis do you think? Could trace minerals be enough to make a difference? I'm thinking that if you can get a different color dyeing in copper than in iron than in ceramic or glass then trace amounts might make enough of a difference in chemical reaction that it could affect your result.
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