Friday, June 26, 2009

Natural dyeing in my greenhouse Kasvivärjäys kasvihuoneessa

Kasvivärjäys ilman keittämistä: kasvihuoneessa on erinäisiä saaveja ja ämpäreitä, krappia vasemmalla, sitten lepän-ja tammenkuoripuretusämpärit, tammenkuoria lisää likoamassa, tuomenlehtiä käymässä etualalla ja kannellisessa ämpärissä paatsamankuoria tuhkalipeässä käymässä, näistä sitten lisää myöhemmin.
Laitoin ensimmäiset krappivärjäykset tulemaan jo kesäkuun puolessa välissä, mutta ilmat olivat niin viileitä, että viikon värjäyksen jälkeen lanka ei ollut mielestäni tarpeeksi tummaa ja nyt kun helteet alkoivat, langat alkavat olla valmiita.

In English
Natural dyeing in cooler temperatures: I have various buckets in my greenhouse, from the left first madder, then alder bark and oak bark baths for mordanting, more oakbarks soaking, tree leaves fermenting and under the red lid there are buckthorn bark fermenting in wood ash lye, more about that later.
I started my first madder bath in the mid July but the weather had been so cool (10-15C)that even though the bath started to ferment, the color was too light after one week, then last weekend the summer really began (over 20C, every day)and now the color looks deep enough.

Yllä tammenkuoria likoamassa ja alapuolella olevassa kuvassa oikealla siivilöidyssä tammenkuoriliemessä olevia lankoja ja vasemmalla lepänkuorista keitetyssä liemessä olevai lankoja. Näillä ei ole puretusta, vaan tarkoitus olisi, että kuorissa oleva tanniini tarttuisi lankoihin ja toimisi puretuksena myöhemmälle värjäykselle, eli tämä olisi kasvivärjäystä ehkä muinaisaikojen malliin. Langat ovat nyt lionneet vajaan viikon, en oiken tarkkaan tiedä, kuinka pitkä aika tarvitaan tällaiseen tanniinipuretukseen. Keittomenetelmällä kuumennus olisi varmaankin riittänyt, nyt ajattelin, että viikko tai ehkä kaksi... Onko kenelläkään kokemuksia?

In English
Above there are oakbarks soaking and in the picture below the bucket on the right has bath strained from already soaked oak barks, and the bucket on the left has bath from cooked alder barks. The yarns are unmordanted and as there are a lot of tannins in the barks, I am hoping the tannins attach to the yarns and acts as a mordant in them when I put the same yarns to another dyebath later. I don't have much experience with this kind of mordanting so I am not sure how long soak is needed in the temperature of 20-25C, a week, two? If I had heated the bath, then I think one hour to overnight would have been enough. Any ideas how long time in cooler temperature is needed?

Tuhkalipeassä olevat paatsamankuoret kuplivat mukavasti:)

There are nice bubbles when the buckthorn bark ferments in wood ash lye:)


Värikasveja: yllä kuva tavallisesta morsingosta, Englannista saatua kantaa ja alla kuva kiinalaisesta morsingosta (Isatis indigotica), jonka lehdet ovat harmaamman vihreitä, mattapintaisia, kun tavallisen lehdet kiiltävät. Molemmat kasvavat nyt hyvin, ehkä pääsen sadonkorjuuseen jo heinäkussa.
In English
Dyeplants: above a picture a woad plant, grown from seeds I got from Jenny Dean, and below chinese woad (Isatis indigotica) which has leaves that are not as shiny and bright green as woad (Isatis tinctoria). Both are now growing well and I hope I can start to harvest them in July.
Ja vähän kukkia puutarhasta, pioneja, pensasruusuja ja esikoita, kesä on ihanaa aikaa:)
And some flowers in my garden, peonies, wild roses and primroses, isn't summer a wonderful time:)




6 comments:

  1. The liquid of the buckthorn bark fermenting in wood ash lye seems brown rather than red, and so does mine. I've soaked just a few pieces of dried (but not really aged) barks that I was told were buckthorn by the farmer who kindly provided them to me from his forest, and even peeled the twigs/branches for me. Now I'm worried: shouldn't it be red when wood ash lye is poured on it? I'm not quite sure what to do when fermentation stopps: to allow it to soak furthermore or to cook it with water and try if it gives some red/dish colour on wool. We'll see ...

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  2. I have no idea how long you'll need to soak the yarn in oak bark for mordanting, but I would guess about a week. This is based on a cold mordant-experiment I made last year with alum. I mordanted som yarn the usual way: one hour in almost boiling water. Then I put a bucket with the same alum-soultion outside for a week, in a sunny place (it was in the summer, but not during especially hot weather). Afterwards I made a dyebath where I used one skein from each, and could see absolutely no difference in the colour of the two skeins.
    What fun to play with this :-)

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  3. Thanks Ladka and Birthe:)
    Ladka, You are right the froth in buckthorn bark looks brown. It is red when I added the wood ash lye to it, but after couple of days of fermenting, the pH drops and the color changes a little. After taking the picture I adde more lye to raise the pH to 9 again, but I am sure Sunday it will be lower again. I think when I did this couple of years ago, the color was reddish even after the fermenting, I'm not quite sure. Anyway, when the pH drops next time, I think I'll put the yarns in and add only a little lye, so that the Ph is 8 at the most, last time the yarn suffered from too high pH. So I'm not going to boil the bark, until afterwards to get yellow.

    Berthe, thanks so much for your experience, I think I'll try to dye with bark mordanted yarns next week:)

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  4. I love the single flowers of your peony - I only have double varieties and they always suffer a lot in wind and rain!btw, did anything germinate from the gunnera seeds yet?

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  5. Leena , it a feast to read your blog!
    I'm hooked to Finland after the feltsymposium in 2000? (i know not exactly the year). I don't know why it tooks me so long to arrive here on your blog, but from now on.....greets yvette

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  6. Hi Bettina and Yvette:)
    Bettina, no unfortuntely the gunnera seeds haven't germanted yet (I think they needed warmer than I could provide them), but the cosmos flowers are growing very nicely:)
    The single peony in the picture was an early hybrid grown from seed, so it doesn't have any name, but right now the first doubleflowered lactiflora peonies are opening, I actually like more the single or only slightly double ones, because they don't need so much staking. It's been now sunny and no rain, so they all holding their flowers up:)

    Yvette, how nice that you found my blog, I don't write as often as I should, but I hope you find something interesting to read anyway:)

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