a r b u t u s * u n e d o

Ah, at long last a new dye ... after of course the results of the solar dye with ginkgo ! :) I've been dieing to dye (OK, pun intended !) for weeks, but December had gotten way too busy & crazy, even in the good sense of it.
As you can see in the title of the post, I've been dyeing this past weekend with ...

A R B U T U S * U N E D O

A little info ...
The Strawberry Tree (Arbutus unedo) is an evergreen shrub or small tree in the heather family, Ericaceae, native to the Mediterranean region and western Europe north to western France and Ireland. Despite its name, the strawberry tree does not produce strawberries !
The leaves are dark green and glossy. The hermaphrodite flowers are white, bell-shaped. They are pollinated by bees. The fruit is a red aggregate drupe, sometimes called arbutus-berry, with a rough surface, maturing 12 months at the same time as the next flowering. The fruit is edible, though many people find it bland and mealy; the name 'unedo' is explained by Pliny the Elder as being derived from unum edo "I eat one", which may seem an apt response to the flavour. They mainly serve as food for birds but in some countries (mainly Spain, Morocco & Algeria) they are used to make jam and liqueurs. It contains lot of vitamin C. The tree can resist to dry summers & can survive until -15°C.
The tree produces masses of beautiful white flowers in November and December. Since the fruit takes 12 months to ripen, the tree carries both mature fruit and flowers at the same time and is then incredibly beautiful.
This is a very good tree to grow in towns because it tolerates industrial pollution.

I decided to use the leaves to dye. I mordanted with alum two pieces of fabrics : a piece of white linen & a piece (scarf sized) of silk. I also added silk yarn, like everytime I do these experiements.

Like with most tree leaves, I obtained a (light) yellow, which I am very happy about. :)

To close this end of 2009, the year I started dyeing with plants, I would love to thank from the bottom of my heart : Margie, Cathy, Eva & Carolyn (and Lisa too, but I forgot to include a photo of you dyes in the mosaic, I am so sorry), for giving me the inspiration & motivation to start my own experiments. Of course I also thank my husband very warmly as he's on my side at all time, and enjoy the dyeing process & result as much as me. How lucky am I ?

See you all in 2010 ... and wishing you lots of happy dyeing with plants experiments !

Solar dyeing // Ginkgo Biloba : Results

There we are, three weeks after I bottled the yellow leaves of ginkgo biloba with three pieces of unmordanted fabrics. (one linen & two silks - see previous post for more details) It stayed on the bathroom radiator the whole time. I wasn't really prepared to ... er, the smell of a vegetal fermentation ! LOL Well, it stroke me instantly as I opened the jar, but when I let a little laugh out, my boys & hubby went to check what was up & ran in the opposite direction the second after, ahahah. Anyway, that was the funny little anecdote about it. I think we're all warned now !

I had rolled the long piece of unmordanted linen with leaves & had tied it. I had rolled a long (scarf sized) piece of unmordanted silk with leaves & had tied it too. And had left a loose piece of unmordanted (sacrf sized too) silk in the jar, swimming in the middle of ginkgo leaves & water.

Conclusion is ... The loose piece of silk didn't get dyed much at all. But the two other pieces of fabrics that had been rolled show much more spots of yellow. An easy conclusion for me to roll & tie the next experiments, with the dyeing parts.

Here's a photo, which I have decided to load directly from Flickr (so you can click it & you'll get to the bigger version on Flickr)

In addition to finishing this solar dye yesterday, I have made another dye ... which will be in the next post ... maybe tonight.
Thanks for visiting ! Happy Holidays ! xoxo

Solar dyeing // Ginkgo Biloba

Hi :) It's been quite a while, uh ? Life's been so busy, and still is (little one with swine flu & throat infection, his big brother coming down with something too, hubby very busy but still healthy)

Very inspired by Eva's & Cathy's solar dyeings, I decided to give it a go myself, and I thought about using the yellow leaves of ginkgo bilobas, while there were still. So I went to the botanical garden last Friday afternoon, and the same evening, started my very first jar of solar dye. I used three things to dye : one loose piece of unmordanted silk, another piece of unmordanted silk (but different) rolled with leaves and then tied with silk yarn, and a more narrow piece of white, unmordanted linen, rolled with leaves & tied with silk yarn too.

I don't know exactly how long I shall leave it on the radiator (no room here with full sun & warmth), but a good couple of weeks, I suppose. If you're familiar with solar dyeing, your advice would be greatly appreciated. :)





I will share the results, of course, as soon as I think they will be ready.