I've been having fun experimenting with willow leaves and green alder catkins. For the below I have used just an old cotton bedsheet as a medium. I'm not experimenting with mordants and fastness at this point - just hues.
I just simmered over night for 30 mins, left the mix overnight. Then sieved, reduce and add the material. Leave overnight.
'Modifiers' like acids (vinegar) are said to 'brighten' colours. Iron liquor (using rust) is said to 'sadden' (darken) colours. Different plant materials will react differently to modifers and ph. Willow, if fact, went a significantly darker orange when a few tbs of vinegar was added .
I'm enjoying making little sample swatches, you can just use a few handfuls of plant material to get a strong colour and experiment, rather than whole bagfuls for dyeing a garment etc. It's quick too.
You can reduce any leftovers into ink, add gum arabic. Keep in the fridge indef'ly.
The last dahlia petal harvest of the year. They hold their colour well even when dried - I love the colours fresh and dry.
I will use them for a bundle dyeing experiment.
Coreopsis is said to give some of the strongest colours of any garden plant. It's a good incentive to grows some again next year; though slugs love it.
I’m following this thread with excitement. I’ve always been fascinated by colour. I’ve not used plants for such big projects, but I often use petals, especially pelargonium (because they’re handy), to stencil cards and wrapping paper.
@pitter-patter Your design is so lovely. Did you make it from printing with the petals?
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This below is plain beetroot - no mordants or modifiers (acids, irons, tannins etc). I used four beets to make enough to experiments with swatches. It's quite hard to capture the subtle colour differences.
This is a quick dip.
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This is a long soak in beetroot. I have added the liquor, to give a sense of the depth of colour and range of colours.
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Dried cloth
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Fresh hawthorn berries, making for an interesting yellow.
I did a session of 'bundle dyeing' but laying garden petals on cotton cloth, rolling it up and then steaming the bundle.
The cloth I used was from an old, white bed sheet that I had been using as a dust sheet. I'm using bits of this I'm using for experiments in hue. It's unmordanted (so not fast for colour).
In this below, I did not pre-soak the cloth in water. On dry cotton I sprayed vinegar lightly (as a brightening modifier). The petals I tried included fresh rose petals from the garden, dark red dried dahlia petals, fresh salvia, dried perennial sunflower for yellow and fresh cyclamen, and dried camomile, to see what might happen. I had previously tried fresh hawthorn and rose hips, but they had no effect at the time.
I sprayed the petals lightly with vinegar, and layed another section of dry bed sheet on top. I then made a tight swiss roll and then made the swiss roll into a snail shape. This is the bundle. I then tied the whole as tightly as poss with string.
The bundle is only slightly damp with vinegar at this point. I then put it in a steamer over a pan of water and gently steamed it for an hour, turning the bundle over once.
In previous experiments I unwrapped the bundle right away and the imprint was not strong, so I left this above bundle to coll in the sealed pan/steamer over night and sit in that damp.
It's kind of hard to tell which petals worked best, as I used various, however I suspect the strongest blocks of colour are from the fresh rose petals and then the dark dried dahlia petals. I don't think the salvia, sunflower or cyclamen did anything; the camomile (yellow) certainly didn't, though it is known to be good for colour when fresh.
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It's recommended to leave the dyed cloth to dry for two weeks, out of direct sunlight, before ironing to help set the colour a bit. As the above cloth isn't mordanted I wouldn't risk washing it, but it would make nice wrapping for gifts.
Some dyers advise soaking the cloth for several hours or days before bundle dyeing. It will be interesting to experiment with the dampness of the cloth to start, with as I suspect this will make the designs clearer or more splotchy, somewhat like water colours. Unwraping the bundle right after steaming might make the designs sharper also, instead of letting the colours 'bleed'.
I just crushed petals between my fingers and dab the stencil. It’s very effective when used to decorate recycled paper for wrapping presents that I then tie with burlap ribbon and decorate with dried flowers/seedheads/berries.
Thanks to @pitter-patter for the stencil inspiration. This is dahlia ink stamped over the flower stencil (with a piece of foam). Also black fungi from the garden, just rubbed on dry, like charcoal. (I should have worn gloves as I didn't ID the fungi). It was quite powdery and I heat set it, with an iron, which seems to work well. There are not mordanted, just experiments, so might be good for a card, but it wouldn't wash, as is.
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This was a great surprise. I used stocks from a bunch of flowers a friend gave me, just rubbed petals straight on the stencil, a la PitterP. They had great, strong colour and were wet hence the flooding behind the stencil. But definitely something to play with in the summer.
Bundle dye. This time no modifiers (no vinegar), no cotton overlay (just one piece of cotton pre-soaked in water). Small pieces of dried dahlia petals in no pattern. I tied into a parcel (not a snail). Steamed for 30 mins and opened right away.
There is still quite a lot of bleeding. More "tie dye" style than I was going for.
I like creating colours that I have no name for. It opens up so many more possiblities. Maybe once you get outside the standard hundred or so colour names, regular labels fail.
~ Dried nettle leaves, with added iron liquor. This has made for an interesting grey/green. Fresh nettle at the time or year and nettle in the spring will give different shades.
~ Dried camomile flowers with added lemon juice. This created a subtle yellow/green/gray I have no name for.
~ Red onion with iron liquor. I left the cotton sitting in the solution for a week and it deeped and darkened terrifically into a dense terracotta/earth/red-brown-thinking-of-chocolate.
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I love the dry beetroot colour.