Natural Dyes: Day One

Today, Day One of the Natural Dyes class in Taos. I think I've found an additional creative outlet. The first day was tons of fun. We made a mordant of Alum with Cream of Tartar, soaked the fiber, and prepared 6 different natural dye baths in mason jars for the small skeins of wool. We worked with: Madder, Marigold, Cochineal, Cutch, Logwood, Brazilwood, and Osage Orange.

It's interesting how different each plant dye stuffs needed to be prepared. From using an electric blender to chop up the Madder to the instant mix and go of the Cutch. So far the Logwood is my favorite; beautifully rich blues and purples. A tie for second goes to Marigold and the Cochineal. Yes, yes, i know...the Cochineal is bright magenta; but i'm drawn to it. I think it's because it's SOOOO super concentrated in the final form.

After getting all of our mini skeins through the dye baths we pulled out one of each color to run though an Iron shift. Neat! Who knew that Iron could have such an effect on color, "Saddening" as Lisel called it, all of the colors to a softer shade. Only one was drastically changed - Marigold. I now know where 60's olive green comes from.

Last was "leaving everything out to dry". Tomorrow we dye and over dye some from today in Indigo. I love blue.