solar dyeing // morus alba

the place where we found the Italian buckthorn (see previous post) last weekend gave us materials for making two other dyes, but I'll share with you today this first one. I can't show you the result right away as it is a solar dyeing. It's practically impossible to find wild strawberries or raspberries or blackberries growing wild VERY locally, but we did find a berry that was already ripe as of today, and it grows in a tree, that we found where we went last weekend. I'm talking about white mulberry / morus alba / mûrier blanc. (in French) Hubby picked a small handful, and I thought it'd be a good idea to use them for solar dyeing.

so yesterday, in preparation to several dyes (which all happened this afternoon), we mordanted silks, linens, cotton crochet lace & silk yarn with alum.

I simply added water to keep them moist until the moment I used them for dyeing. And I think it rather looked lovely as is :)

so ... I mashed the mulberries in a bowl (for dyeing purpose only, obviously, even though these mulberries are poisenous), with a stone as mashing tool. Then I grabbed the small pieces (a piece of silk + a piece of linen + a piece of cotton crochet lace) I wanted to dye (trying to contraint myself to dye few quantity, so that the result shall be better) and "mixed" the fabrics & mashed mulberries. Poured everything in the big glass jar, and added a cup or two of cold water. Mixed some more. Then added a stone to keep everything away from the liquid surface, as I poured candle wax (as India Flint kindly suggested to me ... thank you so very much again for the priceless tip, India !) to prevent the formation of mold. Closed the jar, and now it's ready to dye with the help of the sun .... which, ahem, has totally disappeared (my luck !) this past week & this current week. (we've never had such rainy & cold months of May & June !)

I'll share the results here as soon as they'll be ready to show.

we dyed again with Italian buckthorn this afternoon, and obtained approximately the same results. (fabrics are drying as I'm typing) If they're drastically different in the light of day light, I'll share the fabrics in my next post.

in the next post I will also share the result of another dye (3 in one day is my current maximum !! thanking again my sweet hubby, without him I couldn't have done it at all ... he's the one who went back to the place to collect the dyeing materials ! I have the best husband in the world) Won't say more for today ... :) you'll have to come back to see what I'm talking about ...

thank you so much for stopping by & reading ! And for your comments !