Sunday, June 28, 2015

- Hearts for Charleston dye results, part 1

These are four of the denim and linen cloths that I put in the dye pot two days ago for Dee Mallon's Hearts for Charleston, showing a-sides and turned over b-sides ...


And here are the remaining five, with the darker indigo cloths to the right showing far less evidence of marking ...


I ironed them in hopes of setting the marks from the Thimble flowers (Ratibida columnifera) and Friendship sage (Salvia amistad ... named "amistad" for "friendship" but also the name of a ship that was the scene of a slave mutiny). Then put them into a hot cycle in the washing machine to tame the allergens that have my tongue tingling in a most unpleasant way. It's possible that some of the marks will fade, so I wanted to document them here before proceeding.

It's interesting to note that the deep blues pulled from past dye trials turned out more purple this time around, making me wonder what role the original indigo in the cloth might have played. Although it may be as simple as the indigo blue cloth masking the blue dye, leaving the purple component more apparent.

With Dana's multiple dye trials in mind, once the cloths are washed I will consider which (if any) call for another round of dyeing ... perhaps with windfall lichen next time.