solar dyeing // morus alba : results

I left the solar dyeing (with white mulberries / morus alba) for a week (only, you may think) and decided to rince it yesterday. It did smell strong, as usual. There was no mold apparently, thanks to the candle wax, but boy it did stink. (a bit like roquefort cheese, phew LOL) Once rinced, it didn't smell at all, but a vetegal normal smell. I had mordanted a small piece of silk, a small piece of (white) linen & a small length of (white) cotton crochet lace.

I'm not good at giving colors a name, or at finding the right name for the right color, so I'll simply say it's a greyish, blueish, aqua-ish green, that I really really love.

the result is such (for me) that I CAN NOT wait to try other kinds of berries, this summer, whenever it will be possible. It will be impossible in July as we'll be away half of it, but I hope August will bring many opportunities of dyeing !

happy summer everyone, happy dyeing and thanks for stopping by !

h e l i c h r y s u m * s t o e c h a s

wow, after a couple of months of absence, that's a lot of dyeing happenings ! :D We decided to dye with helichrysum stoechas, that you may know under the name of immortelle, in English or in French. It's a yellow flower, smelling strong like curry (I swear !). They grow wild in the place we visited last weekend (where we picked the Italian buckthorn & white mulberries ... see previous posts).

hubby had collected approx. the equivalent of 6 big handfuls (approximately, I say, I didn't count), therefore I didn't dye a big quantity. The dye itself was yellow, and of course DID smell like curry A LOT ! The fabrics did stayed overnight in the dyebath.

and the result is a lovely yellow, I really like it a lot. The Italian buckthorn gave quite a mustardy yellow, and that yellow is a more subtle one. I'll let you judge.

I tend to think that the final color really looks like the color of the flowers themselves. What do you think ?

for the comparison, here's a photo of the 1st, 2nd & 3rd dyes with Italian buckthorn (rhamnus alaternus) ... and with this very dye with immortelle (helichrysum stoechas)

thank you very much for stopping by & for reading ! :)

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 !

r h a m n u s * a l a t e r n u s

this past weekend, we went exploring a place we didn't know before. It turned out to be quite an amazing piece of nature, made of red clay (presence of iron oxide) & that really made us think of North American canyons or something like that. (I'm pretty sure there are such places all around the world !) Anyway. Hubby & I noticed the presence of an evergreen that was in one of the dyeing books we own. So we picked a couple of handfuls of leaves & drupes(they are not endangered species here), and decided to use them for dyeing. Rhamnus alaternus is know in English under the name of "Italian buckthorn", and in French under the name of "nerprun alaterne". I read that other types of buckthorns were traditionally used for dyeing, but not this one. I love experimenting, don't you ?

I couldn't believe my own eyes to see such a golden, honey color appear, from green leaves & redish drupes !

so here are the final results ... you may wonder why there is a lighter dyed piece of fabric. Well, I decided to throw a piece of UNMORDANTED silk in the dyebath, to see how it would come out. Glad it did dye, even if it didn't dye like the other piece of silk (obviously !)

for your information, I mordanted all pieces(linen, silk, silk yarn, cotton crochet lace) (except that piece of silk) with alum. And hot dyed the leaves & drupes. (simmer/boil) I was so satisfied by the results, that I asked hubby (I have the most awesome hubby, and he's as much interested as me with dyeing with plants) to go collect some more. He also picked other materials that I shall use for solar dyeing. And which will be the theme of another post.

I shall dye again with it tomorrow afternoon. I'm trying to make the most of each season. :) Thanks for reading !