exhausting the dye pot

— and the dyer, too!

this linen towel with the cutwork embroidery (falling apart) was mordanted in alum, simmered in the exhaust bath of dock root and then cochineal/lac. It’s a soft dusty rose. The napkins were a pale cream to start with. Both were mordanted in alum-myrobalan-alum, the myrobalan gives a soft yellow and the pinky one was dyed in the cochineal/lac.

there was still colour in the pots so in went a 4 oz. brick of tussah silk which I won at the last guild meeting.This was alum mordanted first and then it finished off the dock pot and the cochineal/lac. When I turned off the heat I tucked onion skins between the folds and left it to cool overnight.

I’ve always wanted to try natural dyeing blended colours on silk fibre. It works and is still spinnable after all the handling. Need to get more colours next time. 

this is the next experiment using Japanese maple leaves on a previously eco dyed linen napkin. It was rolled up, steamed and left for 5 days. The leaves are the burgundy/red variety. Next I’ll try them on silk.

My cast is OFF!  Now it’s off to physio.