Tag: natural dye

26 Jun

Hawthorn Berries Three Rivers Dyed Silk

Amelia Hoskins / Plant dye processes / / 0 Comments

Hawthorn Berries 1 - River Taw

Berries from Tarka Trail foraging trip along River Taw found by ditch and field growing through hazelnut and willow trees with briars and nettles.

Hawthorn (1) - Dye Bath Process

  • Soak berries for 2-3 days.
  • Boil then simmer for 1-2 hours.  Add water and re-simmer if evaporates.
  • Mash berries, remove pulp from dye pan.  Cool to hand hot.
  • Soak silk in dye bath pot overnight or for two days.
  • The longer soaked, the darker and stronger the colour.

Steeping in dye bath

Silk absorbs dye colour immediately, but some hours of soaking will deepen the tone.  Move silk occasionally to ensure all parts even

1st silk can be left in a bowl to dye stronger overnight, while keeping back some dye liquid to soak a 2nd piece, which will have a paler result.

Hawthorn Berries 2 - River Otter - Dye Process

Soak berries and simmer as Hawthorn (1).  Two silk samples were added to dye liquid when cooled and soaked in a wide copper pot for a day and a night. One was cream. The other was dull pale grey (failed woad dyed piece) which resulted in a browner result. (Colour mixing: grey + hawthorn = brown)

Comparisons - Rivers Taw - River Otter berries

Taw berries result is golden.  Otter berries result is dull fawn.  Unknown whether the different river soils affected the dye colour, or if the copper pot had an effect, which is likely.

Hawthorn Berries 3 - River Exe - Dye Process

Hawthorn Berries River Exe Sessions1,2,3,4 give 4 colour variations

Silk 1 - Lime green.   Silk 2 - Medium mauve.   Silk 3 - Silver.  Silk 4 - Pale peach

Fascinating variations obtained by use of mordants, or washing out methods, or how fresh or old/exhausted the dye bath becomes.

Exe Berries - Ahimsa Silk 1. Mauve turns Green

Large long piece of silk soaked a few hours in pre-mordanting Alum beforehand.

Good Mauve result.  Washed out in tap water, with added soap. Turned GREY, then gradually GREEN!  (Far left)

Was it the tap water?  Was it the soap?

Exe Berries - Ahimsa Silk 2.

Two dress top shapes. NO premordant alum.

Steeped 24hrs in remainder dye bath pink sludgy liquid.

Washed out in tap water - stayed a medium MAUVE. (presume due to no alum).

Exe Berries - Ahimsa Silk 3.

One long silk piece with a hem.

Placed in previous dye bath (1. and 2.)

Turned mauvish, but dried out SILVER! (Right)

Exe Berries - Ahimsa Silk 4.

Silk pre-mordanted with Alum and Cream of Tartar.

Cider vinegar from pre-soaked apple peels added to dye bath.

Placed liquid and fabric in copper pot.

Result overnight - pale peach.

11 Nov

Silk dyed with Comfrey leaves

Amelia Hoskins / Plant dye processes / / 0 Comments

Comfrey leaves give a cream or light beige colour, good for painting on.  Adding iron, gives a dulled greyed mushroom cream.  Comfrey leaves get mushy after boiling.

Alum is a standard means of pre mordanting fabric, to help dye absorption.  Soaking in soya is another.  Alum dissolves in water, before silk is added and soaked for an hour or overnight before dying.

I used this dye session to experiment with shibori: stitching through layers with embroidery skeins, wrapping thread tightly at intersections.  It worked but the result was too pale to notice any difference where the dye resisted.  Iron was added to the dye bath after first pigment had taken up.

Silk looks dark when wet, after iron water added to dye bath, but dried many shades lighter.  Good as a pale mushroom colour.  Shibori stitching was diagonally across weft and warp.  Pale dyes dont give the contrast seen on darker dyes.  I used only cotton thread, which did not resist much dye stuff.  Soya wax could have been brushed on the diagonal lines, to give a slight resist.  Thicker waxed thread ought be tried.

Plain comfrey dyed portion of sample

Darker comfrey + iron dyed section sample

Adding iron to comfrey dye bath turns grey green, and leaving silk submerged longer, results in a very good khaki or green-gold colour.

22 May

Design Philosophy

Amelia Hoskins / About, Design Philosophy, Ethical Fashion / / 0 Comments

Harmonisation with Discarded Fabrics

Design inspiration comes from seeing themes evolve between disparate fabric prints and colours, rescued from charity/thrift shops, to be recreated into a new unique garment artwork.

As an artist and textile designer, I have a keen eye for the illustration and patterns in textile prints. I source those which appeal to me, variously of classical floral illustrative, geometric, and astral.  A combination of all these together with coordinating plain colours makes a good patchwork.

Not all prints are of personal favourite by themselves, but depending on their colours, I will see a way they would contrast or blend within a theme.  A dress full of rose bouquets can be cut up to introduce patch areas highlighting the best flowers.  A smaller patchwork piece/area of fabric can become more special than the full repeated print area.

Cotton lace tops (often cotton/acrylic mix) are another good find, as they can be layered over other colours.  Most synthetic lace fabrics also surprisingly take up plant dye to some extent, which removes any stark whiteness, too brilliant for patches amongst colours.

I usually choose a starting point of a print, or a part of a garment. then make a pile with other colours and prints (5 is usually sufficient to start with).  As you do this, one choice may be removed and replaced with another, as the combined effect literally 'shouts' too dark, too light, etc., depending on the theme in mind. The most subtle patchwork is when the overall effect is of fabrics of a similar tone; i.e. nothing too light, nor too dark, on its own.  I often do include black with a strong colour collection, due to its fashion favouritism, but am more careful with lighter tones and darks mixed, when making patch-worked garments using panels larger than traditional patchwork.

Silk Painting Inspirations

Some garments have my hand painted silk panels.  The print designs in each fabric collection may suggest a new design to be developed further, using their elements to create a silk painted panel, or I may simply copy some elements combined with other images of my own.  Colour mixing dyes to match the existing prints is an essential skill.  My silks, Habotai or Ahimsa, are base dyed with natural plants, in pastels and mostly golds.  In 2024 I'm experimenting with clamp dyeing backgrounds and making dye paints from plants and roots to use instead of commercial chemical dyes.

 

22 May

Bundle Dyeing Seeds and Flowers Workshop

Amelia Hoskins / Dye Workshop / / 0 Comments

Bundle dyed silk samples were created at Flora's Bundle Dye Workshop in Forde Abbey Gardens

Bundle Dyed Silk Samples

Silk and cottons are covered in seeds, petals and powdered roots; then sprayed with vinegar, then folded up into angular folds, before tying up into stringed bundles.  Bundles are hung over the side of a large boiling pot of water.

Bright pigment result from steaming seeds (such as Hopi sunflower), petals (such as dahlia) and dried root (such as madder or logwood).

Drying out unwrapped silk bundles

Authors Samples –  I chose mostly pink and lilac dyestuffs which I tried to arrange in circular patterns, but this process is completely unpredictable.  Next time it would be interesting to make dyestuff arrangements in circular tied bundles or with elastic, similar to tie dye techniques, form snowflake type designs.

22 May

Tansy dyed silk

Amelia Hoskins / Plant dye processes / / 0 Comments

Images to add from dye baths. (missing error)

Silk soon absorbs the dye colour in the strong Tansy dye bath. As this silk can be matted slightly by over heating, and simmering, I only introduce it to a hand hot dye bath. I left it soaking overnight to achieve best strength of colour before rinsing out several times in warm water, until water runs clear.

Wet rinsed silk - drying. Do not squeeze out too hard, or twist creases may occur which don't completely iron out. In summer silk dries fairly quickly and can be ironed smooth while still slightly damp before any creases set in.

A few dark 'spots' are splashes from another dye bath with iron I was doing simultaneously. Only do ONE dye bath at a time.

Ahimsa silk used here, has a different texture to Habotai smooth silk; has thickness of a cotton shirt, but hangs very loose and soft, similarly to viscose. I use offcuts from a fashion company. Its easy to sew and embroider on; as well as silk painting.

This lime yellow is very vivid (see comparisons with other gold colours), so I will overpaint with silk dyes or bundle leaf prints. However, it could be useful to over-dye with madder to give a good orange, or with woad for a turquoise blue. The future life of this piece will be posted here....

See more and others' dye procedures on my Natural Plant Dye Pinterest Board.

Post script.../ This lime yellow was over-dyed in November, used for another test with sycamore leaves bundle-dyeing; I didn't think I would use a bright lime yellow, but must replace as a sample.

22 May

Ladies bedstraw Dyed Silk

Amelia Hoskins / Plant dye processes / / 0 Comments

Bedstraw is found in waste ground and near the coast. The reddish roots are used for dyeing; family is Madder (Rubiaceae) a well known red dye. The plant I found is growing along the Tarka Trail cycle path (ex rail track) opposite the small town of Bideford, N. Devon. Not easy to pull out the roots, and many were left for next year's growth. This seemed a particularly large and well established plant. Bedstraw has many herbal uses.

The roots have a strong pigment towards red-brown.  As the dye bath reduced, I noticed a good pinky red forming on the sides of the pan; possibly due to being aluminium; it may have absorbed the pink element of 'red', giving way to a more browny-peachy colour, even so a very bright peach from the strongest 1st soaking.

Ladies Bedstraw - Amazingly bright ruddy peach silk after removal from dye bath and rinsing

1st Bedstraw dyed silk sample has been pre-mordanted in Alum for a day before putting to soak in hand hot dye bath.  Although the roots were boiled up to release dye, boiling Ahimsa silk roughens it, so it was immersed in only a 'hot' bath.  Plant dye is often absorbed with no heating.

2nd Bedstraw dyed silk sample in cooled dye bath which was reheated with bedstraw to obtain more dyestuff.  Red dye liquid is drained off into glass bowl to soak silk.  Steam iron while still damp to help smooth out creases, or don't squeeze out all water.  Paler colours can be obtained by adding to remaining dye bath while some pigment remains unabsorbed.

Lady's Bedstraw Ahimsa silk results: 1st soak strong peach - 2nd soak light peach.

These samples will be matched with recycled fabric prints, and painted on before becoming part of a new garment; which will be added to this post in due course....

See more and others' dye procedures on my Natural Plant Dye Pinterest Board.

Images copyright Amelia Jane Hoskins Please email for use permission.