Saturday, October 30, 2010

Natural dyeing with Cortinarius semisanguineus caps Sienivärjäystä verihelttaseitikkien lakeilla

Sain viime vuonna ystävältäni erilaisia  kuivattuja verihelttaseitikin (Cortinarius semisanguineus) lakkeja, ja vihdoin kokeilin, millaisia värieroja niistä saaduilla väreillä voisi olla.
 -Lankana oli alunalla (10%) ja viinikivellä (2%) edellisenä päivänä esipuretettua valkoista Aarni-lankaa, samaa puretuserää kaikissa värjäyksissä.
-Kuivattuja sieniä oli 70g/100g lankaa
 -Liotin kuivatut murskatut lakit yön yli ja keitin niin, että ne kiehuivat tunnin, yhteensä keittoajaksi tuli kaksi tuntia, ensimmäisen mennessä liemen kuumenemiseen kiehuvaksi.
 -Siivilöin liemen ja värjäsin 80°C tunnin

IN ENGLISH
A year ago I got some dried caps of mushroom Cortinarius semisanguinus to experiment. I finally got time to dye with these mushrooms and here are the results of this experiment.
-The yarn was white Aarni, mordanted with alum (10%) and Cream of Tartar (2%) the day before, all the yarn was mordanted at the same lot.
-I used 70grams of dried caps to 100grams of yarn
-I soaked the crushed mushrooms overnight, and then boiled them for one hour. Actually it took first one hour to raise the water boiling, so the overall time was two hours.
 -I strained the bath and dyed the yarns for one hour in 80°C (176°F)
Väri no 1: verihelttaseitikkien lakit kerätty normaaleina hyväkuntoisina ja kuivattu
Väri no 2: vanhojen ja jo mädäntyneiden verihelttaseitikkien lakit kerätty ja kuivattu
Väri no 3: jäätyneiden normaalien verihelttaseitikkien lakit kerätty ja kuivattu
Värit 4-5: jälkivärejä edellämainitusta  

Erot erilaisten sienten värillä eivät olleet kovin isoja, mutta selkeästi jo mädäntyneistä lakeista saadussa värissä oli vähiten keltaista sävyä ja se oli myös tummin. Mietin kyllä, että vaikka kuivattujen sienten paino oli sama, niin olisiko mädäntyneitä sieniä ollut tuoreina painona enemmän, ja värin tummuus olisi johtunut siitä.
Väri joka tuli jäätyneistä sienistä oli hyvin lähellä normaalien hyväkuntoisten sienten väriä, vain hiukan tummempi. Eli verihelttaseitikkien vanhetessa maassa ja alkaessa mädäntyä, keltaiset väriaineet vähenevät ja punaiset lisääntyvät.  Vaikka väriero ei ole kovin suuri, niin kuitenkin tarpeeksi erilainen, jotta vanhat ja mädät sienet kannattaa värjätä eri liemessä nuorempien kanssa:)
Jälkiväreistä tuli aika vaaleita, niinkuin minulla aina käy, sienten väriaineet imeytyvät pitkälti jo ensimmäisessä värjäyksessä. Tässä on varmasti vaikutusta veden laadulla, langalla ja värjäystavalla. Toisaalta hyvä ja kestävä ensimmäinen väri riittääkin minulle:)

IN ENGLISH
Color no 1: the mushrooms were picked when mature but before frosts, and then dried
Color no 2: the mushrooms were already old and rotten when picked, then dried
Color no 3: the mushrooms were mature, but not rotten, and picked after a cold night when they were still frozen, then they were dried
Color no 4-5: these came from afterbaths of the previous

The differences  between the dyelots were not big, but clearly the old and already rotten mushrooms gave the darkest color, and didn't have the yellow hue which was most visible in the color no 1. Even thought the dry weight of the used mushrooms was the same, I started thinking that perhaps the rotten mushrooms weighted more when they were fresh, and that the dye was more condensed, and that is why the color I got from them was darker.. I'm not sure.
The color which I got from the frozen mushrooms (no3) was little darker than no1, but it also had the yellow hue like no 1, and it was different from no2.  So it seems that there are less yellow dyestuffs and more red dyestuffs in caps of Cortinarius semisanguineus when it gets old and starts to rot.  Not a big difference, but enough to make it worth to separate them to the different  dyebaths:)

 The afterbaths were much paler than the first bath, where most of the dyes were absorbed to the yarn, this happens to me always with these mushrooms, but I think the quality of water, the yarn or dyemethods are also responsible to this. I'm happy with getting a strong and fast first color:)

6 comments:

  1. I've always adored your mushroom-dyed yarns and also always envied you these mushrooms. My knowledge of mushrooms is null but I can still admire the beautiful fungi in the forests (they were extraordinarily plentiful this autumn - after the floods in nearly half of the country, alas) and the colours on your yarns.
    Thank you for sharing!

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  2. Thanks Ladka, Nature is full of beautiful things:)
    Mushroom dyeing is very much like plant dyeing: most of the mushrooms give beige or yellow and only a few species give reds, greens or bluish colors, so they are easy to experiment with, but many times unknown mushrooms give only beige or no color at all... just like plants:)
    Many good dyemushrooms live close to spruces or pines, not so much in deciduous forests.

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  3. I am always astonished at the colours you can get with mushrooms - and envious because there are so few that grow over here:(( I think I moved into the wrong country for this:))

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  4. Hi Leena ages ago you sent me some cortinarius caps and I saved them them for a special day so now I am attending a Wild Forest product Fair I am going to dye with them on wool and silk for a display. I hope that they are still okay I have had them a long time

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    Replies
    1. Hi Helen, I'm sure they are ok if they are dry. I've even dyed with old moldy cortinarius, but then the colour was not so strong as when they were dry but they still gave colour. Best of luck to you with them:)

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    2. Another comment, if it isn't too late. If you keep the mushrooms in the bath with yarn, and keep the temperature below 70C (like with madder), you can get redder colour, when you boil them there is also yellow dyes which come loose. If you extract the colour by simmering, multiple extractions give different shades.

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