Värikasvit ja syötävät kasvit on istutettu, mutta täytyy kirjoittaa nyt muutamasta viime keväänä tehdystä kokeilusta. Maaliskuussa kaadoimme polttopuita ja joukossa oli muutama harmaaleppä. Lepän kuoresta saa kyllä keltaista (ja vihertävää rautapuretuksella), mutta kun katselin kellanoranssiksi hapettuessaan muttuvaa puuainesta, ajattelin kokeilla irtoaisiko siitä jotain väriä lankoihin. Muistin, että amerikkalainen Sandra Rude värjää paljon eri puiden sahanpurulla, ja on myös kirjoittanut ohjeen kuinka hän sen tekee.
IN ENGLISH
I have finished planting dye plants and edible plants, but first I will write about some experiments I did last spring. In March we cut some trees for firewood and among them were some Grey Alder (Alnus incana). I get yellow from the bark (and greenish with iron), but when I watched the sawdust oxidize to orange I thought about trying to dye with the sawdust. I remembered that American Sandra Rude dyes a lot with different saw dusts, and she has also written a tutorial how to extract the color from them.
Laitoin 200g sahanpurua purkkiin ja päälle lämmintä vettä ja Sinolia pari desiä. Sandra sanoo, että puiden väriaineet irtoavat parhaiten alkoholiin ja Sinol on halvinta alkoholia mitä minulla oli. Annoin purkin seistä pari viikkoa huoneenlämmössä (tiivis kansi on välttämätön) ja liemi muuttui vähitellen ihan punaiseksi ja lupaavaksi.
IN ENGLISH
I put 200grams of sawdust to a jar and then water with rubbing alcohol Sandra says that the dyes from sawdusts release best when extracted in alcohol and rubbing alcohol is the cheapest kind here. The jar was in room temperature for two weeks (the tight lid is essential) and slowly the liquid turned red, and promising.
Kaadoin sitten purkin sisällön kattilaan, lisäsin vettä ja lämmitin hiukan, mutta kuten ohjeessa sanotaan, niin en antanut lämmön nousta yli 60°C. Siivilöin liemen ja laitoin sinne 100g alunapuretettua lankaa ja pienen pätkän purettamatonta vertailuksi. Harmillista kyllä liemen punainen väri ei tarttunut kumpaankaan lankaan, purettamattomaan ei mitään väriä ja puretettukin muuttui hyvin vaaleaksi beigeksi. Harmi, tuota sahanpurua olisi tullut helposti paljonkin. En edes kokeillut liottamista pelkkään veteen, koska en usko, että siitä olisi tullut yhtään mitään. Viime talvena kun liottelin nastakan värjäämiä punapalasia (koivua), niin silloinkin vain Sinoliin liotetuista tuli väriä lankohin, tosin niistäkään ei tullut kuin hailukkaa beigeä.
IN ENGLISH
I poured the contents of the jar to the kettle, added some water and heated a little but like the instruction said, I didn't let the heat raise over 60°C (140°F). I strained the bath and added 100g white yarn mordanted with alum and a small piece of unmordanted yarn for comparison. Sad to say, the red from the bath didn't attach to the yarn, not at all to unmordanted and only very pale color to mordanted wool. It is too bad, I would have had quite a lot of sawdust. I didn't even try this time extracting with pure water, because I don't think it would have worked. Last winter when I soaked wood pieces (birch) colored by fungus Chlorociboria, only the extractions with alcohol gave any color to the yarns, though the color was pale also then.
It is too sad the colour from woods is so difficult if not impossible to transfer to wool! It's also my great frustration.
ReplyDeleteIsn't it! The bath may look so promising and the color doesn't go to yarns. I have one jar of tannin-based red waiting (it has been waiting now for two years) and I don't dare to try it. I'm waiting to discover some method which could work, but it may be that there is none.
ReplyDeleteMinäkin olen miettinyt punaisia lepänkantoja nähdessäni, että mahtaisiko siitä irrota väriä. Nyt ei tarvitse itse kokeilla, kiitos kun jaoit kokeilusi.
ReplyDeleteHi, Leena, How long did you soak the wood chips? How long did you soak the yarn in the dyebath? I sometimes leave the wood soaking for years to get the most color, and let the yarn sit in the bath for many days at room temperature. However, as with other natural dyes, the reds are the most difficult as many are fugitive. The jar looks good, but the color doesn't bond. Try some other wood types, and exercise lots of patience!
ReplyDeleteHi Sandra,
ReplyDeleteI soaked the wood chips for 20 days, and when the color didn't seem to get any darker I dyed with it. I soaked the yarn in the bath only for overnight, so that may have been too short time:( The yarn looked darker in the bath but when I took it away from the bath, the color was pale.
I've tried our local alder (wood chips from a man who makes custom doors with it) and got a slightly darker color on Tencel than you got on wool. I then overdyed it with another wood dye to darken it further. Usually, wool takes darker color than either silk or cellulose. Try again with a wood that has a darker color to begin with.
ReplyDeleteI soaked alder twigs for two years, made it alkaline from time to time; I soaked wool yarn in it for weeks, once even for over one year, also tried soaking yarn together with twigs - all to obtain very poor results :-(
ReplyDeleteThank you Sandra again. Ladka's and your results show that alder wood/twigs are not very good, at least not as good as alder bark which is quite good in my wool. I think the wood of most of the Finnish trees are paler than alder so perhaps tropical trees are better:(
ReplyDeleteMitenkä nuo nahkojen parkitsijat, käyttävätkä he puunkuoria tai -lastuja parkitukseen. Parkitushan antaa aina oman ominaisvärinsä nahkaan. Minkälaisissa liemissä nahkoja liotettaan?
ReplyDeleteMulla ei ole parkituksesta tietoa miten se käytännössä tehdään, mutta olen ymmärtänyt, että siinä käytetään kuoria, ei puuainesta.
ReplyDeleteI got lovely caramels from cherry tree sawdust, aroud 70% weight of the yarn, boiled (accidentally) inwater. Maybe you should give it a try. I will try the alcohol stuff, I still have tons of cherry sawdust.
ReplyDeleteThanks for translating your blog to English, it is so interesting.
Khendra (if you want to have a look at the wool frim the second both of the cherry sawdust and if you are on Ravelry, take a look at my Bovary socks. I gifted the first bath wool so no pictures).