So my solution to waiting for the latest dye trial results was to go out of town. It was worth it in every way imaginable ...
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Of course, the best part of waiting was visiting the grands in Missouri ...
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Followed by coming back to our Texas grandson ...
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But getting to the dye results was definitely a little less sweet. I hadn't capped the jars tightly enough, so leakage and mold happened over the course of ten days ...
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Rinsing off the decomposed plant matter was akin to what I imagine a dental hygienist experiences on a really bad day. Definitely not for the weak of stomach! But the results were pretty cool, some more so than others of course (this photo was taken following a preliminary rinse in warm tap water) ...
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Mordants from left to right (note: all the cloth was pre-mordanted in soy milk, kept overnight in the fridge then rinsed):
- Copper
- Alum
- Iron
Dyestuffs from top to bottom:
- Lichen (windfall Parmotrema austrosinense)
- Mealy blue sage (wild Salvia farinacea)
- Rosemary (Rosmarinus officinalis)
- Salvia amistad and S. greggi
- Red cabbage
- Red and yellow onion skins
Oh, and I almost forgot! Here's the B-side of Triangulation, now fully reinforced and worth every extra stitch, although the front looks virtually the same as before (which is why I haven't shown the A-side here) ...
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The final reveal will probably be in pillow form, but only time will tell.
Wow and wow. Thank you for sharing your dye results and for the specifics of mordant and material...this adds to everyone's knowledge base.
ReplyDeleteTriangulation is so well integrated and tangible. I'm looking forward to the reappearance of all of these pieces in future work.
Thanks Dana ... my mind is already working on what to do with these new cloths. Fingers crossed that they don't lose too much color when they're fully washed and rinsed (they're a bit too aromatic to leave them as is).
ReplyDeleteI need to go back to the post and note that all the cloth was pre-mordanted in soy milk, too.
First and foremost, your grand kids, big sigh, they are so adorable.
ReplyDeleteYour dyed cloths are spectacular Liz, I could not choose a favorite but what I can do is to compose a little ditty to celebrate your results
Ode to Liz's cloth:
In Texas lives a woman who gathered offerings to dye,
She took from her land, from her veggie scraps, under the vast Texas sky.
Rolling, arranging, making cloth, she put them in jar,
Leaving them to steep and do magic,cause she had to travel far.
While she was gone, the jars had fun, peculating and even spilling.
Best of all, when she returned and opened the jars, what she found was so thrilling.
A treasure of color and marking and dyed wonder, no small feat,
Everyone who sees them, will be given quite the treat.
I am positively grinning ear to ear ...
Deletei have to leave again this morning but will look SO forward to returning
ReplyDeleteand reading slowly, Looking and Looking....
GREAT GREAT RESULTS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
May all go well today ... and all the days that follow. I'm with you in spirit truly.
DeleteAnd thank you.
lovely! haven't opened my jars yet
ReplyDeleteThanks! I do like your dandelion yellows ... ironically, we don't have many here. I think I'll try thimble flowers though (aka Mexican hats)
DeleteI really like the onion. And I don't see the mold. Are the specks really tiny?
ReplyDeleteThanks! The onion colors are wild, although I've had all the cloths hanging outside for a few days, so they've settled down a bit.
DeleteThe mold was worst in the iron jars on the far right ... the mold and iron combined to make a dark black line along the folds that were at the top of the jars. Interesting to note, I took six of the less vividly colored cloths (including most of the irons) and ran them through the wash with some bleach just to see what would happen. What little color was there washed out (which I expected), but the iron and mold marks remained. I'll show them in another post after I iron the remaining cloths (to set the color hopefully) and then launder them.
there's so much here, i will just have to do it a little at a time.
ReplyDeleteFirst, did you TIE the cloth bundles before you put them in the jars???
and then, Thank YOU so much for photos of the kids...both kinds....and then the one of
you...it's great
I folded the cloth in thirds, rolled it, then wrapped with crochet cotton or wire (copper or steel). The cloth was about 14" square ... folded it just fit in a quart canning jar.
ReplyDeleteAnd thank you ... I do love showing off my kids and grands