I can hardly contain myself whilst I wait for the leaves to make prints on the cloth, and I can unpack the jar to see if it's worked!
I've not posted about the eco dying I've been doing, as I'm still very mid process. However, here are a few steps along the way: I found a wonderful old aluminium pot, that fits perfectly on the wok ring on my cooker. I filled this with and alum and washing soda mordant and immersed some of my stash of old linens, cottons, lace and also some silk in different weights and weaves. I simmered it for an hour, then let it cool overnight. The following day it was spun and hung in a cool dark spot until dry, then immersed in a mixture of Ph neutral water and soya milk for another overnight soak. When spun and hung again, it was ready to dye. I've experimented with natural dyes on wool fibres in the past, but am now playing with plant fibres and silk prints after reading India Flint's amazing book on eco-colour. It's a great read, with stunning photographs and I thoroughly recommend it to anyone who is into natural dye processes. Anyway, back to the dye pot. Whilst I continued to mordant the cloth in batches, I played with eucalyptus (which doesn't need a mordant on silk). I boiled up the leaves in a large stainless steel pot. Then I scrunched and bundled up the samples of cloth; some had the eucalyptus leaves laid out on them before wrapping them up and binding. Then I put them in a jar and I've left it on the sunny shelf in my studio for a few weeks. I did seal the jar with beeswax, but the liquid has oozed up and out of the jar; maybe it's fermenting. I can hardly contain myself whilst I wait for the leaves to make prints on the cloth, and I can unpack the jar to see if it's worked! Alchemy!
1 Comment
21/8/2010 11:08:59 pm
hey thanks for the kind mention
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AuthorJulie Shackson is an artist and designer, working across various mediums and living in Wales Archives
June 2014
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