@Fire do you know what stage oak galls need to be harvested to yield pigment? I found a decent handful on the school run this morning that has dropped to the ground. I can post them to you if they're any good?
My drawstring birthday bag project is done. Cloth dyed in dahlia petal solution and then block printed with dahlia paint (fixed with gum Arabic). The cloth is fully mordanted with alum so hopefully the colours should not run or fade. I have dyed cloth with petals before and made petal ink, but not printed with petal ink on petal cloth before - so I'm pleased to make a first attempt to put the various stages together. I would do it differently next time, but it's made for some good learning, which was the point. I discover you can buy pre-mordanted, "prepared for dyeing" (PFD), but I'm glad to have had a go at mordanting my own. 🌱🌱🌱
Here are experiments using red onion skins. The cotton cloth was unmordanted.
Here I used here the only skins of six onions - just enough to do experiments. I cut up and froze the onions. The link below suggests 12 onions is enough to strongly dye one t shirt.
You could make a strong ink with six onion skins, the liquid slowly concentrated and gum arabic added. Red onions make red/pink/purple. Yellow onions make can beige/yellow/cream
To the same solution I then added one tablespoon of vinegar with iron disolved in it (from derusting tools). The iron adds a morndanting element, that might help the colour stay fast when washing. The bath went a magical instant dark brown: All a bit Harry Potter.
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... then I added a tablespoon of bicarb to lighten it. Then a tablespoon of homemade eucalyptus dye (red) to see if I could turn it more purple. Tree bark can lightening colours and add a mordanted element via its tannins.
The solution instantly turned a very convincing chocolate tone.
Both these colours below are from the same red onion solution. The red was dipped early on (see above) and the 'biscuit colour' was dipped at the end, after the above processes, and then the cloth thoroughly washed out.
By the time I had dyed both pieces of cloth below (from six onions) there was a little solution left and I reduced that down and mixed with gum arabic to make an ink. I will print on the cloth with the ink, using block prints. The ink should store well in the fridge for a good long while.
The house is going to take days to ventilate. Iron and vinegar is a potent mix to cook.
If you have the dreaded Alkanet, I’ve read that it’s roots are good for dyeing. I can’t recall the colour it produces - I think it might be a red
If you have a garden and a library, you have everything you need.”—Marcus Tullius Cicero East facing, top of a hill clay-loam, cultivated for centuries (7 years by me). Birmingham
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I have seen oak galls around here before, so I'll keep my eyes peeled for you!
East facing, top of a hill clay-loam, cultivated for centuries (7 years by me). Birmingham