Tag: wool

05 Nov

Crimson Vine Leaves Eco Prints Silk and Wool

Amelia Hoskins / Plant dye processes / / 0 Comments

Catalpa Bignoniodes Tree - Crimson Vine type - Several experiments on Habotai silk and fine wool

Habotai (1):   Large leaves turn red and deeper red to black in October. By Nov 1 hardly any left on this tree. Also similar to Crimson Vine seen same month 2024 at Overbeck Gardens.  Tests to add more leaf prints to previously dyed habotai silk samples. Crimson vine dye bath gives pink silk in 2023, then oxidized to silver!  This year testing red leaves with eco printing, for better result of colour preservation.

Silk previously dyed in golds and with failed eco prints: to be augmented with more colour from red leaves, eucalyptus leaves, sprinkled Amaranthe and Black Knight Scabious.

Silk folded up from bottom and over top layout - for a mirrored print result.  Leaves area sponged with urine as experiment to retain red pigment. (previously dyed and eco printed silk has already been alum mordanted, which may help new prints)  Bundle prepared for steaming.

Secondary additional bundle steam with Red leaves Catalpa Bignoniodes on Hab (1) areas without strong colour.

Crimson leaves Catalpa Bignoniodes on Habotai (2)

Another two previously dyed gold silks with failed eco prints to be enhanced.  Red leaves with some eucalyptus and coreopsis.  Two pieces of habotai silk 8 sandwiched.

Crimson leaves experiment - (no added urine sponging).  Fresh red Sumac leaves dipped in a solution before placed with silk: Bucket solution: (water with used alum + dollop of rusty nail iron water + dollop of urine).  Hoped to give a stronger tone to Sumac leaves, due to previous prints being pale.

SECONDARY ADDITIONAL bundle steam with red Catalpa Biognoniodes leaves on Hab. (2)

Extra Sumac leaves dipped in mordant liquid [alum water + rusty nail iron water + 2 dst sp urine].  Coreopsis Gazebo Red laced between leaves.

ADDITIONAL LEAF AND COREOPSIS STEAMING - Pre-dyed gold silk Hab. (3) test

Another gold dyed sample with secondary purple-lilac leaf prints and grey Sumac leaf prints needs MORE enhanced colour...  One Catalpa crimson leaf and several Coreopsis Gazebo Red added.  Clingfilm laid and rollered over folded silk.  Bundle tied.  Steam 20 mins. [Note: Gazebo Red stated to produce sage green; but produced purple after alum + water mordant sprinkling, combined with tannins already in the previous dye colour.] 

Crimson Catalpa leaves - Experiment on Fine Wool scarf (1). Fine wool previously dyed in comfrey.  Red leaves and small petals from Coreopsis Roulette (result violet-black).

RESULT - Red leaves turn purple on silk and wool after washing out.   Acceptable - as in 2023 these leaves made silk a similar deep pink, then oxidized to silver.  At least they produced a print.   Some leaves partly faded lilac prints which gives an interesting 'ghostly' effect. (to be tried without background dye).  The iron and possibly the urine mordanting helped to give a stronger tone.  Coreopsis Roulette (dark violet spot) prints are darker than expected, as dried flower packet states 'Olive Green'.

If silk looks a bit dry when folding into bundle, leafs are used to dab liquid over.  This aids ghostly effects where dampness is unevenly spread.  When cling film is wrapped around folded silk, air is squeezed out with rolling pin either end of folded bundle.  Folding lengths to a 4inch-6inch flat bundle, enables wrapping around stick, or swiss-rolling into itself, secured with string/piping cord.

2nd Steam with extra oak leaves (dipped in soya wax resist) - No iron modifyer.  Oak leaves as resist didn't show any difference. Steaming will have melted out the wax.  Bundle was placed in jar of red water made from soaking the Catalpa leaves several days. The wool appeared to dye red, but on washing out after 24 hours, no colour.  Wool was slightly duller, needed to change the bright yellow from 1st steam.

Crimson Catalpa leaves - Experiment on Fine Wool scarf (2)

Eco print steaming 1hr 30mins.  More leaves were positioned on scarf, close together, than previous scarf 1. Amaranthe was included in spaces between leaves, but no result seen apart from more blurred purple.

MODIFYING the eco printed wool, to change the darkness of the dull aubergine prints.  PINK by painting on lemon juice and GREEN by painting on bicarbonate of soda.

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.

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.

30 Dec

Jerkin Dresses

Amelia Hoskins / Coat Dress / / 0 Comments

JERKIN DRESSES -  Linen - Wool - Corduroy  - (Sold)

I enjoyed making these jerkins, and they had great appeal, as they are suitable for English weather, warn over T-shirts and leggings Spring and Winter

Using different wools together

RUSTICA - Printed scarf used at front and back. Wool check which continues on angle at front

D'ARTAGNON - back view shows skirt pleat inverted to give shoulder width, subsequently sold at pop up Art shop

Jerkin MULBERRY WALNUT

Modelled by Boo at Exeter Arts Centre Crafts show

A favourite jerkin, utilised plain beige cotton/wool mix with colourful red check patched pocket, side vents, and collar.

Side vents were used because the beige fabric is taken from trousers, using the top part across the shoulders, with leg sections tapering down below hips.

Red check contrast fabric is from a Per Una skirt for side vent flares (seen clearly in this image), collar and pocket. Tabard sleeve edges bound in red check.

Wooden brown buttons add to the rustic feel.

Collar is large when opened and high fitting when closed against wind. Collar alone used vogue pattern; darted for shape. Uses lots of fabric.

Images copyright Amelia Jane Hoskins Please email for use permission.