Originally posted Oct 16, 2015
I thought I’d try a couple more dye experiments before the weather gets too nasty. I hope I’ll be able to do some of this outside since indoor dye stuff can make you feel ill…as I learned from the tansy experiment. Tansy has been used as an insect repellent, and when you cook it, it concentrates the smell and makes it difficult to tolerate. Nausea is a side effect. Yep. I was feeling a bit queasy.
So today’s experiment comes from this article that I found: http://www.allfiberarts.com/2011/how_dye_rhododendron.htm, the use of rhododendrons for dye materials. It just so happened that a knew a lady who owns a house with some 50 year old rhodie plants in the yard. I went over there and, not knowing how many I’d need, I trimmed off a sack full of leaves from the tree in the front yard.
Referring to the instructions, I cut up a bunch of the leaves, most into 1″ to 2″ pieces, putting them into a mesh bag to keep the yarn and foliage separate during the dye process. This bag I set into a pot of cold water. The smell was getting overwhelming, so I placed it on the deck overnight. I only used about half the leaves that I picked. I may try a second dye bath with a different mordant later.
Many leaves and flowers tend to result in a yellow yarn, which gets kind of boring, so I wanted to try for a green. Using the instructions, I followed them to make an iron mordant. Taking my rusty nail water, I poured about a cup and a half of the iron water into a bowl of tap water and set the wool yarn into it (about 100 yards taken off a large skein). [Yes, this plastic bowl is designated for dye stuff…never mix dye stuff and food stuff!]
To be continued….
Yawn! Ahhh! That was great restful night! So I left the leaves soaking in the water overnight on the deck. I peeked at it and it looked like a green-brown soup. Not attractive, but it looked like it was doing something.
In order to avoid having the smells and the potential toxic stuff in the house, I decided that I’d use the grill outside. I set the pot on the grill and set it on medium to get it warmed up. Later, I set it up to high. Since the lid was open, I was losing a lot of heat and it was pretty cold outside, so to compensate…even though the directions said to keep it under 200 degrees–so not a full boil. I left it on the grill for about an hour, checking on it periodically to make sure it wasn’t boiling, and at that last check, I realized that there was no heat. Ran out of gas. Ah well, best laid plans. I moved it inside and let it simmer on low for 30 minutes or so with the windows open and the vent fan on.
I took the yarn and drained most of the iron liquid off and gently set it into the dye bath. I poked it with the spoon and put the bag of leaves on top, letting it simmer some more. After about an hour, I took my first peek…
It’s going green!! I let it sit for another hour or so, checked again, but it looks like it’s not getting any greener. It’s drip-drying on the deck and appears to be a light olive green. I love it!
I let the leaves steep all day and mordanted another 100 yards of wool in alum. I dropped that in the pot, just to see if it would come out yellow…unless some of the iron residue is still in the pot, then I may end up with something green or green-yellow. We’ll see what the morning brings!
I’m now working on the seventh kingdom (out of 20). I’m not as happy with this 6th Kingdom, only because good purple glass is difficult to find and make pretty. The Thai Orchid tends to look a little muddy. The Grape Ape looks a little too pastel. Pastel Purple looks pink. I’m thinking that the purple clear glass might be the way to go.
