Tag: plant dye

28 Oct

Eucalpytus leaves

Amelia Hoskins / Plant dye processes / / 0 Comments

EUCALYPTUS ON FINE WOOL

First eucalyptus print results!

Long leaves down length of scarf.

Previously rose hip dyed wool (warm banana background).  Most long leaves steamed orange-brown; a few smaller leaves produced scarlet.   Centre of dahlia prints - dipped in iron water appeared slightly mauve.  Purple ends are a purple salvia.

EUCALYPTUS

Subtle leaves and background result on the gold Ahimsa silk

 

EUCALYPTUS

Eucalyptus leaves laid on grey silk - folded over for steam printing.

EUCALYPTUS + GERANIUM Experiment

Geranium leaves dipped in slight iron water, placed sky side down over eucalyptus leaves: all over previously golden dyed habotai silk, and splashed with water  that the eucalyptus leaves had been soaked in for two days; (jar with brown liquid).   I must have put another grey piece over this (half the base piece size) for the result below.  [Important to NOTE each step!]. Result on the larger gold habotai silk 'blanket' was hardly noticeable.  Ahimsa seems to take the dyestuff better.

 

EUCALYPTUS

Eucalyptus leaves laid on grey silk - folded over with gold silk - smoothed and rollered, for steam printing. Brown colour was spread by the action of rollering where silk had been splashed.

 

With folded piece, eucalyptus leaves design runs both OVER the geranium leaves and BEHIND them.  An idea to exploit again. Photo record above shows this is the earth side of the leaves; and gives a good detailed print.

04 Sep

Bougainvillea Test Bundle

Amelia Hoskins / Plant dye processes / / 0 Comments

Test bundle steam: bougainvillea petals, antirrhinums, linaria marjoram, dahlia leaves

Interesting result with orange from bougainvillea.  Navy from crimson antirrhinums.  Folded carefully into strip then wrapped around stick and steamed on trivet.  Closed pan.  Clingfilm barrier helps highlight single petals, without over bleeding.  Possibly 1hr steamed (no note made); probably too long, causing dulling and blurring, especially brown of majoram.

Steamed result

Cerise bougainvillea created 'day-glo' orange.  Dahlia leaves create pale green.  Marjoram dried flowers only brown. Antirrhinums violet until modified to navy.  Result was too yellow, so soaked peice in bowl with previously used weakened rusty nail water (iron) and raspberry juice to dull off; just enough.

Bougainvillea orange can probably be modified brighter in another test.  Antirrhinums very promising navy; grow more!  [tests for 2025]

This silk result is still bright, or brighter, and more promising than originally thought. It matches very well to a piece of privet dyed silk [for dress design]

03 Sep

Privet leaves yellow

Amelia Hoskins / Plant dye processes / / 0 Comments

Privet from privet bush

Privet leaves give a crisp cool yellow on Habotai silk, and a vibrant yellow on Ahimsa silk.  Both colours can appear the same in light.  Both silks were soaked 24hrs in the dyebath; not boiled. The privet was boiled and soaked over 2 days.

BRIGHT result from soaking in Privet dyebath:

More colours obtained by modifying with iron and blackberry. (Featured image above shows the olive change when part dipped in modified privet.  Iron modified dye bath turns silk olive green, (darker if longer);  then further soaked in blackberry dye water, turns purple. Eco print between yellows is Bougainvillea and antirrhinum.

Silk in further iron modified blackberry subsequently turns duller; more violet.

Striated lines between yellow-olive-purple are created by wrapping rubber band at dip point level.  The folds created also give a lined effect from olive into the purple; a quick easy way to create definition of interest.  Habotai privet yellow is a good match for some fabrics already started in a garment.

Dress photo to be added when completed.

Privet to Purple

Used Privet leaves and dye bath were simmered in a slow cooker over a day, combined with a few avocado pits and some skins.  Dyebath darkened to dull brown.  Small amount tipped into remaining half exhausted purple blackberry dye bath.  Habotai silk result lavender (paler than pure blackberry).

 

Privet to Purple

Ahimsa sample piece turned light beige in avocado modified dye bath.  Then coiled in fresh blackberry to test if purple is redder after the soaking.  Quick result of crimson.

 

21 Jul

Bundle Dyed Backgrounds

Amelia Hoskins / Eco Prints, Plant dye processes / / 0 Comments

Experimental reds steam bundle dyeing for background texture

1.  Red onions - red antirrhinum - red ivy dried - red ragged robin leaves - red new St. John Word bush leaves - purple marjoram dried flower heads sprinkled
2. Ferns added - made it browner

Making steaming parcel

Carefully folding silk over from edge and corners to enclose dye stuff.  Folding method: 'Side over', 'Corners over to centre', : repeatedly.

Otherwise spread only on half of fabric, to fold over easily.

Parcel preparation

Spraying with vinegar and using baking roller to flatten.

Experimental parcel other than rolling around a stick.

Ferns added

Although a few textured results were acceptable, I wanted to change the brown/white contrast.

Extra steaming with ferns produced browner overall dyed.   The brown fuzzy seeds on reverse of ferns I believe cause this.

The bundle can be flat, and not always tied around a stick.

A bit too brown for me...

One piece can be continually experimented on.  Maybe lemon juice will bleach lighter some of the background, as painted shapes?  Maybe blackberry, or woad blue, or logwood pigment dyes can be used as design shapes over the brown?

Adaptations to be continued...

08 Jul

Purple Bundle dye double silks

Amelia Hoskins / Plant dye processes / / 0 Comments

Cranesbill - Linaria - Vetch

Experimental bundle dye to see what 'takes'.   Foraged purple flowers.  Linaria flowers were almost seasonally finished; so tried purple vetch also, still massing into flower.

Habotai light gold silk was pre-soaked in Alum mordant.  Hawthorne dyed thicker Ahimsa silk was pre-soaked in 10mls of red acid dye, (used for silk painting) to change the gold slightly.   Both silks to be steamed together.

Flowers arranged on Ahimsa and Habotai covering

Flowers between two silks before folding in three

Two types of silk: Habotai light, Ahimsa darker

Dark gold Ahimsa as 'blanket' around Habotai silk sandwiched.  Silk 'sandwich' was folded over itself into thirds, before winding around a thick stick.  Tightly tied with string, but uncovered, before steaming over an open saucepan.

While folding over, area was sprinkled with vinegar/water weak mix.  (too strong vinegar can causer yellow-browning).  Queen Anne's lace was sponged with rust water.

Silks rolled around branch

Two silks wrapped around branch with string

Wrapped bundle over steam pan

Steaming pot

Improvised steaming stick; rose tree root rests across pan.  Sits, or can be tied on.  Length enables handles to turn around.  Bundle was steamed for 5 hours simmered, turning part time, then left in position overnight and opened after 24hrs.

This method, with a 'blanket silk layer' has given cleaner prints than other methods with lid down and long steaming.  Conclusion: open dye pan avoids bleeding of flower colour which happens during closed steams. [or do shorter steams].

STEAMING RESULTS

Linaria (semi wild) produces a very good dark blue, in places 'Prussian' blue shining turquoise, in blurred shapes from the tops of Linaria flowers.  Speckles can be seen where I broke and scattered linaria flower heads, giving dark blue-black dots.  Shapes created by blue dye are in places mirrored due to the folding of the Habotai silk into three, together with a 'blanket' of Ahimsa silk.

Mirror prints appear on darker gold Ahimza silk, but feinter.  (Ahimsa was not soaked in Alum, but was briefly soaked in a weak magenta acid dye.  (A tip from another dyer that a pre soak in an acid dye will increase density of floral 'prints'; especially if iron modifier used).  

Red clover also made purple prints of the small tiny petals.  [They may have shown more purple dots if they had been flattened out first.  These tiny petals could have been sprinkled over].   No evidence of purple vetch giving a dye result, nor blue cranesbill.

Queen Anne's lace produced a good yellow, though just blurred areas, where they were placed in centre of silk scarf lengths. They were sponged with rusty-nail 'iron' water modifying mixture.

30 Apr

Rosemary Simple and Iron

Amelia Hoskins / Plant dye processes / / 0 Comments

Rosemary Dyed Silk (Ahimsa)

Mustard yellow, fairly strong after overnight soaking in dye bath.

Dye bath was boiled up with rosemary leaves and flowers, and few twigs.   Simmered for an hour, then left overnight before using.

Rosemary water after boiling up and leaving overnight.

Rosemary Dye Bath with Iron

After dying Ahimsa silk yellow, iron was added to dyebath. About a tablespoon of ferrous sulphate powder and tablespoon of iron water (from rusty nails).  Wool previously pale yellow from first dye bath, turned dark blue green; then dried greyed olive tone.

For comparison

Left to Right:

Raspberry cane (soy wax resist white),

Rosemary simple, Rosemary + iron, (rosemary simple on silk is deeper mustard yellow).

Apple twigs (lemon bleached designs)

 

WOOL SCARF TULIPS (Rosemary and iron dyed above)

PAINTED with natural dyes and BLEACHED with LEMON JUICE

Fine wool scarf painted on and bleached.  Tulips bleached with lemon juice.  Dark leaves have soya milk painted on the shape area first; when dried, dark woad dye (from jar of original mix) is added.  Leaves without soya milk base (brown) show bleeding over wool.  Soya lines within tulip petals (second end) before painting dye over.

Experiment, unsteamed as yet.  Piece will be finished and left for weeks before steaming.  Wool is very open weave, fine, so colouring is experimental.  If the soya base under design shapes produces a good fixed colour, with a clear defining outline, after steaming, it will be very useful for painting designs on other wool lengths already dyed with natural dyes.

 

26 Apr

Magnolia Dyed Silk

Amelia Hoskins / Plant dye processes / / 0 Comments

Magnolia petals

Dried petals (browned) wrapped in silk which was previously dyed with boiled magnolia petals, producing a bright shiny Naples yellow.  Petals were white with purple centres.

 

Bundle Method - Opening bundle reveals steamed petals

Silk wrapped around wood or stick, with string and rubber bands.  A second bundle was made with razor shells as a base.  Silk pieces were quite small and folded over to trap petals.   2nd dyeing produced some feint brownish areas from the second dye with petals.  Click to open gallery view

Texture 'seersucker' effect

Crossing over string back along the piece results in twist impression on dyed fabric.  If wrapped very tightly it might keep an interesting effect.

Silk in apple tree shows the brightness of the yellow in sunlight.  The piece bundle dyed with razor shells shows slight browning from the petals.

06 Dec

Raspberry Cane Dyepot Resist

Amelia Hoskins / Plant dye processes / / 0 Comments

Silk dyed in pot of previous 'Indian Bean Tree' dye; with added chopped raspberry canes. Canes were heated in slow cooker for some time, and a test square of silk left in cold dye for 5 days, which turned ocre gold.

TRISKEL DESIGNS:  Soya wax used to create resist areas of triskels, prior to dyeing in a previous dye bath which had resulted too pale.  The two design areas traced through with brush of hot soya wax. The original wax imprint is seen in the final result below, after raspberry cane dyepot.  Wax may have been too hot, as it left a dark mark; see lemon bleaching below.  [Triskel design taken from Celtic Spirals book, enlarged]

RASPBERRY CANE RESULT

DESIGN: Two large triskelles on cloth.

  • Over-dying pale rosehip-dyed habotai silk. Finished colour mid tone terracotta.
  • Circular areas of triskelle designs were stitched around and gathered up tight.
  • Cold dyed for over 24hrs, the resist technique worked reasonably well, some circles clearly have the paler rosehip colour showing due to the blocking off of die penetration.
  • The soya wax design outlines had left an imprint darker, whereas I wanted pale contrast, so I followed the design again with lemon juice.

Over-bleaching with Lemon Juice

Soya wax circular outlines (used as resist) had left a darker mark (grease?) or darker dyed?   I used lemon juice to brush around the triskel design circles, which after drying and washing out, left a lighter outline, like a weak bleach.  A good experiment, which may bleach better on different dye stuffs.  The lemon itself was used as a 'bleach pot' with an end cut off to dip in.

 

Lemon juice bleaching result.

Several tones lighter, but not enough.

Useful as a test.  Could be used as a created texture in backgrounds.

Last bleaching - with professional chemical discharge paste, mixed 50/30% water/paste.

A much lighter result and clearer outlines.

Pasted on with stiffish brush, the outlines are clear, giving a good base for adding coloured details to the design.

Silk design will be used as a centrepiece in patchwork quilt, (pinned here to cotton background).  New added details of silk painting will echo the colours in the patchwork prints.  Quilt design development will be linked to as a new post.

20 Nov

Silk and Wool Indian Bean Tree Dye

Amelia Hoskins / Plant dye processes / / 0 Comments

Bright Pink leaves collected

Indian Bean tree red leaves

Bright Pink leaves in dye pot

Pink pigment quickly absorbed

Pink silk washed in rainwater

Tree has large heart shaped leaves which turn cerise, and dark red.  Found fallen on the path in early November.  The dye pigment is released by slow soaking in rain water, but changes to brown if boiled. (produces similar brown colour as sycamore leaves produce).  Pink is released into fabric in cold water.

Silk soaked in alum for mordanting: then soaked overnight in red leaf water.  Pigment was rapidly absorbed immediately, and turned deep pink overnight.  Washed out in rain water.  When hanging in air, starting to dry, it turned silver grey.  Finished result is a very good silver, good to coordinate with other grey fabrics.

Silk rinsed result deep pink

Indian Bean Tree  - Dye results:

PINK-SILVER on silk : GREEN on wool

After drying, pink silk turned silver; evenly dyed.

Indian Bean Tree - Steam Pressed Leaves

DISCOVERY:  Red Indian Bean tree leaves soaked COLD with fabric produces silver on alum mordanted silk, green on wool pre-dyed with hawthorn, and if used HOT steamed, gives brown textures onto Tutsan dyed silk.

EXPERIMENT:  Steam printing leaves on Tutsan dyed silk

  1. Steam press red leaves (underside up) through protective piece of scrap cotton onto silk.
  2. RESULT:  Red or reddish-brown outlines of leaf veins.  Not worked each time.  Leaves need to be rain water wet.
  3. Paint leaves with old cider vinegar. Position over silk.  Fold silk over double, sandwiching leaves.
  4. Steam press over leaves areas, pressing hard.
  5. RESULT:  Brown outlines of leaves; appears burnt effect from vinegar. [good for paper printing].

EXPERIMENT - SOYA WAX RESIST - Ferns on Wool

Fine wool was previously dyed in Hawthorn bath (second soak): with splodgy rust marks needing disguise.  A good opportunity to experiment with resist techniques.

  1. Fern leaves laid on, wool length folded over
  2. Melted soya wax dabbed with stiff paint brush over the fern shapes.  Some red Indian Bean leaves placed in spaces.
  3. Cloth folded rectangularly into flat piece.
  4. Soaked overnight in cold bean leaf dye bath (after refreshing with more red leaves first).
  5. On opening parcel, pink dyed area seen [subsequently turns grey , then green]
  6. Wax washed out, and pressed out with brown paper, then washed again.
  7. Wax is sticky on wool fabric.

SOYA WAX AND FERNS EXPERIMENT RESULT - MOVES TO GREEN

Feint imprint of fern in centre-right, from soya resist after washing out.  Ferns also produce dye showing russet fern shapes in places.  It would work with a darker overdye and suit silk better, as wax is more difficult to remove from wool.  Final colour was grey green, (now become lime green after various washings to remove wax.) More techniques are needed as the wool piece is still obviously patchy, needing disguise. (see over-designs below).

Experimental painting with natural dye mixes

Grey green wool developed to a brighter lime green after further washing in laundry liquid.  Blotchy green coverage suitable for designs overpainted.  Triskele design adapted from Adrian Meehan's 'Spiral Patterns', 12 fold division of circle - 'The Hitching hanging Bowl'  item c.650 AD.  Centre Nigella seed pods from own drawings adapted from own photographs.

Dye powders mixed in pond water and simmered to dissolve.  Half a jar of water, level Tblsp or less dye powder, level Tbsp soda ash.  The soda ash likely made the colours tend towards brown, e.g. Mimosa, Logwood.  Madder turned darker red rather than orange-red.

Madder + soda ash.  Logwood + soda ash.  Turmeric.  Mimosa (1) + soda ash + oak gall = warm brown. Mimosa (2) + soda ash + woad = warm beige (not the lilac possible with Mimosa).  Woad (1) pure.  Woad (2) + soda ash = greeny blue. 

 

ANTIFUSANTS

Logwood and Woad dye jars were mixed with 'No Flow' to prevent colour bleeding. I also had dabbed the whole fabric with 'no flow' with a natural sponge.  Madder was mixed with Epaississant gum ('Se melangea la couleur pour lui enlever son fusant') also to prevent dye spreading out of desired shapes, which worked well, as all red is contained.  Blue lines were able to be applied finely, as was the logwood; both with an antifusant added. Mimosa had no antifusant added and bled out of design area; seen around the seed pods in centre.  Brown bleed-out areas were bleached with lemon juice afterwards see in above image. Conclusion: half a tsp of antifusant can be added to half full dye jar to prevent bleeding.

Lemon juice was brushed around centre circles to bleach lighter where the Mimosa brown had spread too much.

UNSUCCESSFUL - Colours were not steamed, so washing out removed most of the colour.  (Wool must be steamed to fix the dyes, just as silk is. I normally paint with steam fix dyes and wanted to try the natural dyes without steaming.  Iron steaming might have half worked).  Mimosa and logwood colours still remain embedded though feinter.  The feint pastel colours are attractive in their own right, but will be merged into the fresh painting.

WOOL PAINTING RECOVERY - Adding discharged designs again

Discharge paste 'De Clourant' was mixed with warm water, about 50% water/30% discharge paste.  (Weaker solution due to a test showing full strength goes yellow on the green dyed wool!).  The weaker strength works fine when steamed, and does not leave any thickness on the wool surface.  Design shapes of Celtic Triskeles are roughly traced with water soluble pen, then bleached out by applying mix with rough brush marks as the basic outlines of triskeles.  (quickest way to re-establish the areas).

REPAINTING WITH NATURAL DYES  - Madder, Woad, Logwood, Mimosa (jar mixes)

Fine wool held still with masking tape, over a lightbox perspex sheet before applying gutta-dye lines and infill-dye with brush.

Finished painting of triskeles on fine wool scarf

GREEN WOOL SCARF AFTER STEAMING TRISKELE PAINTING

Slightly disappointing result, but was expected.  Background original green (Indian Bean Tree)  turned slightly more gold (olive); also changeable in different lights.  The aspect of appearing brighter gold-green, or duller olive-green is interesting.  Previous painted errors were disguised well.

Madder dye -  A ruddy red remained well, but paler.   Logwood dye - Aubergine brown paler.  Mimosa - brown paler.

Woad dye - first mix very pale blue; second woad mix with soda ash added, looked green in jar, but stayed darker blue after steaming.

STEAMED COLOURS

Many of the gutta drawn outlines with dye added disappeared, but they worked well, preventing dye spreading outside of design areas; even on this very open weave, see-through fine wool.

Dark blue thin gutta outlines turned brown.

Woad was extremely pale, except for a 2nd woad mix with soda ash added, which looked dark green in jar, but steamed prussian blue.

CONCLUSION -  Plant dyes work on fine wool, but these were on a green ground.  White or paler colours might produce stronger dye colours.

31 Oct

Plant Dyes Wool and Silk 2023-24

Amelia Hoskins / Plant dye processes / / 0 Comments
Hawthorn 'May blossom' in full bloom with rare magenta Salsify (its normally yellow) growing up through.

Autumn FORAGING and DYEING TIME using plants in my allotment

Hawthorn - Comfrey - Tutsan Eurasian St. John's Wort - Rose Hips

Hawthorn berries:  the Hawthorn tree has grown considerably since it seeded itself about 5 years ago.  The amount of blossom in May ensured there would be many berries, which turned bright red by August, but by late October when I got to pick them many were gone.  Previous Hawthorn dyeing was from berries near different rivers. can be compared.

Dye bath is not exhausted after three lots of dyeing, so still has potential for multiple dyeing and to produce a good stock of pale gold silk or wool backgrounds, which is very useful for painting on.  It can be modified with iron for duller tones, or sycamore for more russet darker tones.  This time of year sycamore leaves are plentiful on the ground.

COMFREY LEAVES collected

Comfrey leaves are plentiful in summer.  See previous Comfrey dyeing post.  By autumn, three plants had sprouted new leaves after earlier ones had frizzled away from heat and rain.  They soon brown off in winter so I picked a deep basket full of them all.

  • Soak leaves overnight, pressing as many leaves down into large jam pan as possible.
  • Heat to soften and add more as they soften down. (from a large picking).
  • Boil and simmer for some hours, until leaves mushy
  • Remove leaves; cool liquid before adding wool or silk.

Fine wool cloth was dyed first, soaked overnight, without mordant.  Silk was dyed secondarily, soaked from cooled dye bath, and achieved the same ecru colour.  Notice the colour results are identical for wool or silk, whereas with Hawthorn berries, the colour results are different between fine wool and silk.  RESULTS below after 24 hour soakings

 

Lace dress wet from comfrey dye bath.

Third fabric to soak pigment.

It looked green, but dried grey; only appearing 'green' in photographs.

TUTSAN berries, (EURASIAN ST JOHNS WORT) Hypericum androsaemum 

Used for the first time as I had not seen this plant in books.  The berries produce a good light orange gold on silk, without mordanting.

Both black and red berries were soaked overnight, then boiled and simmered, until skins broke and they became soft.  Plant stuff removed and Habotai silk soaked in liquid in slow cooker, on warm for a while, then cooled overnight.

Secondary dye piece of lace summer top: Lace appears to be cotton and soaked up the dye.  After several hours the lining was still whitish, (photo above wet) so presumed polyester; but after 24 hours, it was just about the same colour as the cotton lace, so it may be viscose or silk organdie.  (felt like organdie).   More pigment still visible in dye bath to be used for another piece.  Used berries in photo.

Comparisons below of wet cloths: Tutsan dyed silk (left), and Hawthorne dyed fine wool (right)

Bundle steaming - petals and leaves - on Tutsan dyed silk

Textured antique background for painting over

  1. Laying dried geranium petals, dried daffodils, red antirrhinum petals and other purple flowers, and  on silk.
  2. Wrap around 1 inch wide strip of cardboard; roll around; make into bundle ring and tie with twine.
  3. Suspend bundle over dye bath pan.  Steam for an hour.
  4. RESULT:  'Antique' effect mottled brown and dull pink, with yellow from the daffodils. Motifs repeated in stripes, the width of the cardboard.
  5. Can be tried with any petals and seeds and leaves on any pastel shade to give textured effect.

ROSE HIPS  :  Used for peachy pink dyeing and rose hip syrup

Result from 2023 rosehip dye were quite pale.  A peachy light bright pastel, but not as pink as previous years.  [Add samples of dyed silk and wool.]

The wool is a fair colour to paint designs over.  The Silk was subsequently over-dyed: with continued experiments using resist techniques.  Overdyed with sage giving light yellow-gold; first dye bath strong ochre gold, second dye bath lighter ocre gold.  See Sage dyed silk Triskele designs.

Images copyright Amelia Jane Hoskins Please email for use permission.