Monday, March 30, 2015

Failure with walnut hulls Epäonnistunut kokeilu

Syksyllä sain pienen määrän tuoreita jalopähkinän (Juglans) kuoria, ja laitoin ne likoon niinkuin olisin tehnyt kuivatuillekin kuorille. Kirjoitin silloin niistä täällä ja silloin Trevor ja Neki kertoivat, että niillä olisi ollut paras värjätä heti niiden pudottua. No, olin jo laittanut ne silloin likoamaan, enkä ehtinyt muutenkaan tehdä syksyllä kokeiluja joten ne jäivät odottamaan. Nyt sitten keitin tummanruskean liemen ja laitoin siihen 20g purettamatonta lankaa ja pätkän alunapuretettua, ja kuumensin liemen 80°C kahtena peräkkäisenä päivänä. Nähtävästi lankaa oli ihan liikaa suhteessa kuoriin, koska väriä eri tarttunut kumpaankaan lankaan juuri lainkaan, vain hyvin vaalea beige tuli lopputulokseksi. Ehkä myös pitkä liotus tosiaan vaikutti eri tavalla kuin kuivatuilla kuorilla. No voi, nyt kuitenkin taas tiedän mitä ei pidä tehdä:). Epäonnistuneistakin värjäyksistä oppii.

IN ENGLISH
In the autumn I got a small amount of fresh walnut hulls, and I put them to soak like I do with dry walnut hulls. I wrote about them here, and Trevor and Neki commented that it would have been best to dye with them immediately when they were fresh. Well. I had them already soaking and I didn't have time to dye with them in the autumn so they were left to soak. Now I boiled the dark brown liquid and after that added 20grams of unmordanted  yarn and a piece of yarn mordanted with alum. I simmered them for an hour in two days, but I suspect I had way too much yarn in relation to the amount of hulls (only a handful) because neither yarn got hardly any color, a very very light tan color. Perhaps also the long soak affected differently than with dry hulls, but now I know what not to do:) You can learn even from a failure.

8 comments:

  1. I have a huge walnut tree in my yard (Juglans regia) and have dyed with the hulls many times. A soak doesn't usually cause problems, in fact it seems to help - though the longest I've left them is only a few months and they were pretty mouldy and smelly by then. You may not have had enough quantity for your skeins though. It takes quite a lot to get deep browns and Persian (or English) walnut is not as dark as black walnut.

    I never dry them but instead freeze the whole nuts to keep them for later use. The ones the squirrels leave me are not good for eating anyway!

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    1. Thank you Louisa, your experience must be right that I need more of the hulls:)

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  2. Do you know that the leaves contain the same pigment as the nuts! I harvest the leaves just before they become jaune in autumn.
    And that is not required to boil them, cold dying is also possible (even better)

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    1. Thank you Yvonne, I haven't tried the leaves, but when my small trees grow more I will try them. it is good that I could use the leaves (in the autumn) even when the trees are too small to produce the nuts:)

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  3. totta, niistä sitä vasta oppiikin.
    hyvää pääsiäistä Sinulle!

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    1. Kiitos Ilona, ja hyvää pääsiäistä sinullekin:)

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  4. I am wondering too about leaving things for a great length of time to soak. With my cherry bark experiments I think that the time lost me any red pigments that might have been there.

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  5. Leena, i can get powdered tanin . one's darker and soluble in alcohol and the other is sand colored and soluble in water. let me know if you want some.

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