A week or so ago, I just had to do some eco-dyeing - our hollyhocks have been flowering and dropping beautifully dark flowers. I collected them over a couple of weeks and put them in the freezer. Some were left to dry and then put in the freezer. It wasn't intentional to let them dry, it just happened with the very warm days.
I used India Flint's book - ECO DYEING - especially her bit about freezing the organic material because it gives good colour.
I actually had some flowers in the freezer from last summer, possibly the one previous too.
I decided to use some bits of silk that I have had in the cupboard, some scraps and some complete scarves. I used vinegar as my mordant.
Following the instructions (which I can do sometimes) I made a dye bath.
I put the fabric in and got some pale pink results. I had put the flowers into an old pair of pantyhose.
I squeezed the colour out as much as I could. When I had finished with it, I put it aside. It still had colour in the flowers, which surprised me.
I put the fabric in the dye bath and left it for a day or so.
When I took it out it was pink but not very strongly coloured.
However, I had noticed that the flowers still had colour and I didn't want to waste it - so I found some scraps of various types of silk and did a contact dye, rolling the fabrics over the flowers.
The results were quite different - some were the same pale pink, others took the colour really strongly! The best piece is an old chemise that was no longer wearable. It was already a brown silk so that must have affected the dye. Now to decide what to do with these pieces.
There was still a little bit of colour in the dyebath and I couldn't resist seeing if I could get some more colour from it. I had a rather large square scarf and put it in the jar. Then I put it in the glasshouse to keep it warm. Then I forgot about it!
I was reminded today that I had left the scarf soaking in the leftover dye from the hollyhock dyeing. It had been in the glasshouse that has no plants in it at the moment as it gets too hot at this time of the year.
It is going to be very hot in the next few days, so it was good to get it out this evening.If I had wanted a grey scarf with some random brown stains, I would say it was a success!
However, that was not the aim, so I might try some overdyeing.
I walked the dog a couple of days ago in a park I haven't visited for ages. The eucalyptus trees are throwing off their bark in the summer. I used to collect it when I walked there with our previous dog. The bark can give some gorgeous colours. Eucalyptus leaves also give great colours. AND they don't need mordant! So I might give it a go in the coming days - if I can be bothered going out in the heat to collect the bark and leaves.
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