Tammikuussa värjäsin kotkansiiven itiölehdillä ja sain kaunista oranssia. Silloin Carrie kommenteissa kertoi saaneensa keväisistä kotkansiiven suomuista puuvillalle pinkkiä. Vaikka nyt olisi jo luonnossa paljonkin kerättävää vihreää niin halusin kokeilla mitä keväiset kotkansiiven versot antaisivat minulle.
Keräsin nuo kuvassa olevat lehdet heti kuvan ottamisen jälkeen. Niitä oli noin kilo. Pilkoin ne ja keitin hiljaisella tulella pari tuntia ja jäähdytin yön yli. Liemi oli tumman ruskeaa. Värjäsin sitten 100g aluna-viinikivipuretettua lankaa, sekä mallipätkät purettamatonta ja rautapuretettua. Ensin alkuun tuntui, että lankohin ei tartu mitään väriä, mutta jätin sitten langat jäähtymään liemeen seuraavaan päivään jolloin alunapuretetusta oli tullut vaaleanruskeaa, purettamaton pieni pätkä oli hailukan keltainen ja rautapuretettu vihreä. Talvinen kotkansiivistä tullut väri oli tosi paljon parempi ja nyt tiedän, että näitä ei kannata ainakaan heti keväällä kerätä värjäykseen, eli sikäli onnistunut kokeilu vaikka väri ei olekaan juuri minkäänlainen.
IN ENGLISH
In January I dyed with fertile Ostrich fern fronds and got beautiful orange. In that post Carrie commented that she had gotten pink to cotton in spring from Ostrich fern scales. There would be a lot of green to try dyeing with in nature right now, but I wanted to see what Ostrich fern would give me in spring.
I collected fronds in the picture above right after taking the picture. I had one kilo of fresh fronds. I cut them to small pieces and simmered for couple of hours and let the bath cool overnight. The bath was dark brown. Next day I strained off the bath and dyed 100g of wool mordanted with alum and CoT, and also small samples of unmordanted yarn and yarn mordanted with iron. At first it seemed that I wouldn't get any colour at all but after leaving yarns to cool in the bath until next day I got light brown from alum mordanted yarn, very pale yellow from no mordant and green from iron mordant. The colour I got in the winter was so much better, and now I know that these frond are not worth dyeing with, at least not this early in the spring, so the experiment was successful in providing me new information.
Dear Leena, can you read anything abour dyeing with leaves from red beech and otherred-leaved trees in your books. I don't know if you're on facebook, but we're having a party dyeing green - bottle green and the like - with red beech and hazel leaves rigth now. Your opinion and wisdom would be much appreciated. Link to group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/120649691292468/
ReplyDeleteHi, I'm not in Facebook. I haven't dyed with red leaves because I sell my yarns and I believe the dyes in red leaves (as also in red basil or red onion skins) come from anthocuanin type of dyes, and they may or may not be lightfast enough depending on your use of the yarns dyed with them. I'm sure they are fast enough if you dye yarn for socks for you your own use:)
ReplyDeleteTyping error, I meant anthocyanin.
DeleteThank you for this answer. I'm sure you're right that anthocyanin is the dyeing medium. As I'm dyeing for my own blankets - indoor use only - I'm OK with less than optimal ligthfastness. I have put a mini-skein in my window for testing, and I'm going to dye with same leaves on some yarn again later this year to test seasonal variability. Thanks again
DeleteHi Leena,
ReplyDeleteIt was the coppery colored papery scales on the ostrich fern fiddleheads that I used to achieve the pinky peach on cotton, not the whole fiddleheads. I save them up when I harvest the fiddle heads to eat, brushing off the scales and saving them in a bag. So that may be why you got a differnent result. It could have also been because you died on wool and it just takes up different pigments.
All the best,
Carrie