 |
| One final pass Second dye trial with "tired" cochineal tea and freshly mordanted cloth (alum + tap water) |
 | |
| 2 hours after immersion Top half: #1 Alum (unrinsed) Bottom half: #2 Alum + cream of tartar (unrinsed) Note original scraps of cloth on the mid-left edge of picture |
 | |
| 2 hours after immersion Top half: #3 Alum + lemon juice Bottom half: #4 Alum + steel wire and rusty nails Note original scraps of cloth on the mid-left edge of picture |
 |
| 1 hour after immersion Note addition of new cloth to the right mordanted in alum and tap water |
 |
| 30 minutes after immersion with recent addition of rusty nails to #4 |
 | |
| 5 minutes after immersion #1 Alum only #2 Alum + cream of tartar #3 Alum + lemon juice #4 Alum + steel wire Original piece of yellow linen used to collect cochineal beetles (unmordanted) |
Recap of how it was all put together:
I removed the alum mordanted cloth (still wet) from the canning jars and staged it in bowls. Then I mixed up three additives: 1 tsp. cream of tartar in distilled water, 1/2 lemon freshly squeezed, and steel wire in distilled water. I also cadged a metal sink strainer from the kitchen ...
After heating up the cochineal tea (which had an indescribable, but not unpleasant aroma), I strained it into each jar ...
then added the cloth and mixed in each additive (leaving the first jar unadulterated as a control) ...
| |
| 5 minutes after immersion #1 Alum only #2 Alum + cream of tartar #3 Alum + lemon juice #4 Alum + steel wire Original piece of yellow linen used to collect cochineal beetles (unmordanted) |
Color happened immediately, but the steel wire jar didn't seem to be doing much, so I looked around Don's work area for some rustier stuff ...
 |
| Grody metal thing found on our road trip ... too big |
 |
| Assorted Junkology bits, tempting, but ... |
 |
| That's it ... in the upper right hand corner ... tiny rusted nails!! |
Success! Now I'm going to do some housework to keep me occupied so I stop messing with things. Whenever I get the urge, I'll post the most recent result at the top of this post.
