Monday, March 24, 2008

Rhubarb root dyeing Raparperinjuurella värjäystä



Kevättä odotellessa kokeilin raparperin juurten käyttämistä tuhkalipeässä, se kun sisältää samoja väriaineita kuin paatsamankuoretkin. Laitoin 180g kuivattuja raparperinjuuria tuhkalipeään, pH10, ja pidin niitä lämpimässä puuhellan kulmalla viikon. Liemi muuttui melkein heti tummanpunaiseksi, mutta ei alkanut käydä eli ei kuplimista eikä pH:n laskua, niinkuin käymisessä olisi kuulunut tapahtua. Sen sijaan liemi muuttui ensin paksuksi punaiseksi kiisseliksi, sitten hyytelöksi! Annoin liemen seistä vielä toisenkin viikon ja se vain paksuni.
Lopulta lisäsin vettä, hauduttelin mössöä hiljaisella tulella päivän ja seuraavan aamuna siivilöin normaaliksi väriliemeksi muuttuneen kiisselin. Myös pH oli laskenut 7:ään.

Lisäsin 100g alunapuretettua lankaa ja parin tunnin värjäyksen jälkeen siitä tuli voimakkaan sinapinkeltaista lankaa, no1893. Värjäsin seuraavana päivänä jälkiliemessä 300g indigosinistä vihreäksi, no 1894, ja vielä myöhemmin osan jo aiemmin indigolla ja kokenillilla moniväriseksi värjättyyn lankaan vihreää, jota tosin tuli liian vähän, lanka no1891, jota on kuvassa kaksi vyyhtiä. Tätä lankaa on nyt jäljellä 390g. Vieläkin liemi näytti väriä, joten laitoin sinne osittain sidottuna vielä aiemmin krapilla vaaleankirjavaksi värjättyä lankaa, 1892.

Raparperinjuurien käyttäminen ei siis onnistunut, mutta muu värjäys kyllä sitten ihan hyvin. Nämä olivat vielä viime vuotisia kuivattuja juuria, mutta ehkä kuukauden päästä pääsen jo kaivelemaan omia raparperinjuuriani. Virolainen Liis oli nostanut maasta ja värjännyt myös raparperinjuurilla jo helmikuussa ja kirjoittanut siitä blogissaan.

Cardonin kirjan mukaan raparperinjuurissa (ja erityisesti koristeraparperien, Rheum officinale ja Rheum palmatum) voi olla jopa 25 erilaista antrakinoniväriainetta, vain krapista on niitä löydetty enemmän. Näitä samoja on siis myös paatsamankuorissa ja sienissä. Lisäksi raparperinjuurissa on muitakin väriaineita ja tanniineja. Nämä väriaineet ovat hyvin valon- ja pesunkestäviä. Erilaisten väriaineiden suhteellinen osuus vaihtelee vuodenaikojen mukaan, Cardon sanoo antrakinoneja olevan eniten kesällä. Täytyykin jättää osa juurista kerättäväksi keskikesälle:)

In English
While waiting for spring to come, I have tried fermenting rhubarb roots in wood ash lye, I thought that would be interesting, because it contains the same dyestuffs as buckthorn bark. I put 180grams of dried rhubarb roots to soak in lye, pH10 and let it sit in a warm place for one week. The color of the bath changed to bloodred, but it didn't start to ferment, no bubbles and the pH didn't drop like it did when I fermented other stuffs. Instead the bath became like a thick red jelly! I let it be for another week and it became even thicker.
I then added more water and simmered it for one day and the next day strained it. It now became like a normal dyebath and also the pH had dropped to 7. I added 100g of alum mordanted white yarn and got strong mustard color, no 1893. The next day I dyed 300grams of indigo blue yarn to green, no 1894 and then put some previously with indigo and cochineal dyed multicolored yarn in the pot. I have 390grams of that color now, no1891, two skeins in the picture. The bath looked like it had more color to give so I put there 500grams multicolored madder yarn, tied a little. That was too much, but the outcome was ok, still, no 1892.

Fermenting the rhubarb rots didn't work out, but anyway it gave good yellows. These roots were from last year, but maybe after only one month the ground has melted so much that I can dig up more rhubarb roots. Liis from Estonia has written to her blog about digging and dyeing with rhubarb roots already a month ago.

Cardon's book says that rhubarb roots (especially medicinal rhubarbs, Rheum officinale and Rheum palmatum) can contain up to 25 different anthraquinone colorants, only madder has more of them. There are also other dyestuffs and tannins in the roots and the colors from rhubarb roots are very light- and washfast. The proportions of the different dyestuffs vary depending on the time of year, the anthraquinones are more important in the summertime. I must save some rhubarbs to be dug up in the summer, too:)





7 comments:

  1. The madder-rhubarb root yarn is beautiful, I have to try this :) I don't know about the dried roots, but I've found out that I have to take at least 300 g of fresh roots for 100 g of yarn (not altering the pH) if I want to get nice yellow. Otherwise I end up with beige.

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  2. Hi Leena, Rhubarb root is one of my favourite dyes too but I never though to try and ferment it and I thought you did a very interesting experiemnt and your colours are wonderful. ( as always :) )
    I have just tried fermenting alderbuckthorn but have had no luck just an orangy brown. I thought maybe my woodash lye was not strong enough so have made some more but in fact it is taking along time to get really strong -at the moment after two weeks it is only at pH 9. How do you do yours do you drip it through the woodash?

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  3. Thank you Liis for sharing your experience with fresh rhubarb roots. I have to try with fresh roots later (when all the snow melts)and it is good to know the ratio.

    Helen, this was very interesting to see that I didn't get rhubarb roots to ferment but maybe in some other conditions it is possible?
    I do the wood ash lye by pouring boiling water over the ash and letting it sit for some days/a week. I have used quite a lot of ash, maybe 2 litres of ash to 8 litres of water. My lye is over pH 10, the pH slips I use don't show over 10, so I am not sure. After some days I then carefully pour the lye to another bucket. I once poured more hot water over the once used ashes, but then the lye came out weaker, I think pH 8-9.

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  4. Any idea if rhubarb root will colour grey hair blonde?

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  5. Nature Shop, I don't know at all how natural dyes would do as hair dyes:(

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  6. It is almost a year after you wrote this, but I am also waiting for the winter to end here in Minnesota, USA and am trying to learn about dyeing with buckthorn.

    It is very invasive here and we will be cutting quite a bit of it out of our lilac hedge this year. We cut several shrubs/small trees of it last year and tossed the branches in our brush pile, now that I know they can be used for dye I will have to dig out the year-old cuttings and see what they do.

    I found a link about the emodins from buckthorn being used to produce yellow color on wool, your mention of the dye chemical being the same between buckthorn and rhubarb made me want to learn more.

    Here are some links I found, in case you haven't run across them yet:

    (this one mostly talks about using the berries)
    http://www.niles-hs.k12.il.us/amilef/Plantprojects2003/Group4/European%20Buckthorn%20SR.htm

    I wasn't able to find full text anywhere, but did you know there is a professor near you researching emodin as a wool dye?
    http://home.edu.helsinki.fi/~riraisan/julkaisut.htm

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  7. Hi Phishlady, thanks for the link!
    I know the professor you wrote about, and I have her book about mushroom Cortinarius sanguineus which she had studied. There are so many things to natural dyeing, that's why this is so interesting:)

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