Madder Jar unpacked

After the malodorous unpacking of the madder jar, and an hour spent picking bits of rotten leaves and flowers from the folds of fabric, I laundered and pressed the samples and left them for a few days before photographing them. Now smelling sweetly, I notice that the faint outlines of the leaves have darkened and become more distinct after a few days airing. So here they are:

These first samples are a silk/viscose velvet (no leaves) variously scrunched and tied. The more loosely tied; the greater variation in hue.

These are pieces of the softest antique cotton; it is old and has little strength, but has been laundered for many years, so takes the dye well. The first picture shows a piece folded with rose petals and fuschia (only the central purple part of the fuschia gave colour) and the other two are various flowers (heather) and cochineal beetles.

This is an old antique soft cotton table-cloth folded with hollyhocks, cochineal beetles and a few leaves. The hollyhocks are from the garden at Ty Cariad and I planted them for a splash of deepest dark purple in the border; though the dye they produce is a blue that is quite a deep Prussian in hue.

These are from the same cloth, and show some details; the one in the centre is the whole cloth.

These are interesting; a combination of red onion skins and maple leaves............and a leaf I'm not sure of (may be dahlia) and another dark blue one in the corner that I have no recollection of at all! I like the variation of colours through the cloth with this one.

This is the first of the pure silk pieces; one has a very faint green leafy outline, but more interesting is the intensity of the madder where the bundle was tied.
I'll find a use for the string itself too I'm sure.

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Here's another that is similar, but again the leaf is so faint it hardly registers. The darker splodgy line up the middle is where the madder dye water evaporated away from the fabric and it was left exposed to the air.

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I rather like this one; it looks like a rib-cage and spinal column. It is silk folded with rose leaves.

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And this is the same piece with the rose leaf detail. The rose leaves may be more distinct if I were to boil the bundle in the dye bath before leaving to rest; something to try next time.

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This is silk with a maple leaf and some less distinct images. The border is made from some mordanted lace and a wide cotton ribbon; all thrown in the same dye pot. I find the contrast in colours between the different fabric samples is quite astounding.

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And this is my favourite piece of silk from this dye jar. It has everything; two distinctly different maple leaves, and a scattering of gorse flowers. The silk picked up the pink from the madder quite intensely with this one and it also has the string tie marks too. What more could you want from a sample!

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And to finish off, this was at the bottom of the jar. It's an antique soft cotton camisole top with a crochet border which took the dye beautifully.
I'm so pleased with this first dye jar and intend to carry on experimenting with other plant dyes. The birch jars will be opened next; watch this space!