In discussion with Artybirds tutor Kate regarding my previous strange dying results , she mentioned that dying mixed animal and vegetable fibres simultaneously is very tricky and might be best done with natural dyes. I was pondering this advice when while out on my bike near my home I saw a sea of dandelion flowers. Perfect for a natural dyeing experiment. Nothing too big, or complicated just some fabrics and fibres as a test.
So I returned to the field of flowers with my collecting bag and picked dandelion heads . Well I quickly picked rather a lot 650g. Rather more than I needed for my small experiment.
I then tried simply boiling the flowers to extract the dyes. No mordants, additives were added, which I know is probably wrong. However in my enthusiasm for this totally unplanned a experiment it had not thought to get any suitable chemicals.
After straining I simmered my fabrics and fibres, mixed vegetable and animal sourced for 30 mins .
I left them to steep over night and then rinsed and dried the dyed samples.
Very pale , but quite satisfactory for a first natural dying venture.
A bit more research is needed now into mordants etc and then I will dare to dye a combined felted piece again.
Posted with Blogsy
It's such a pity that the colours hardly ever are the same after the dying .....
ReplyDeleteMmmmmm, sunny dandelions ;-)