A White Blouse

A White Blouse

 

I started with a white cotton blouse  from a thrift shop that cost 59 cents. I used a glass jar to heat with alum mordant for several days in the sun.  Then did the same with a tannic acid mordant derived from pomegranate skins.

 After the pomegranate mordant dyed the blouse this golden yellow, I inserted and tied in pennies.  Then I scrunched the blouse and returned it to the jar for a week, this time in a solution with cochineal bugs.



The photo does not show this well, but the areas around the pennies turned several shades of green to chartreuse.

Hmmm... still needed something, so on Easter day, I picked some red hibiscus flowers, tomato vine and thistle leaves, and I pounded them into the fabric with a hammer.

Wow! I got this blue from red hibiscus flowers.  So we'll see what happens after exposed to light for several months.

Today on June 8, the color still looks good.  I'm especially happy that the blue from the hibiscus is still very blue, and the tomato leaf prints stayed quite green although the thistle leaf prints turned to a mustard color.

Dyed Basket Reed

I really need the sun to come out and dry this freshly dyed reed for tomorrrow's workshop at Dunedin Fine Arts Center!

And this is how I dye basket reed:

Materials:

1 hank reed

Procion MX Dyes

 soda ash

iodine free salt 

rubber gloves

old clothes and apron,

dust mask plastic bucket,

 utensils for mixing that are only used for dying

1.       Loosen the ties on the reed

2.        Soak reed in  in enough water to cover the reed for an hour or so ( use a rock or brick to keep the reed from floating)

3.       Dissolve 1 cup of iodine free salt in about 2 cups hot of water add to soaking reed. Mix well

4.       Dissolve 2-4 tablespoons of dye powder in a small amount of water. Mix  thoroughly, then add to soaking reed. Mix well. (Wear your dust mask during this step!)

5.       Let the dye bath soak 2-24 hours, depending on the color intensity desired.

6.       To fix the dye, dissolve 9 table spoons of soda ash in to 2 cups of hot water add  to the dye bath and mix well.  Let the reed soak in the activated dye bath for 24 hours.  (the temperature outside should be above  75 F

7.       Pour off the dye bath, and and you may rinse now the reed several times until the water runs clear.  However, I feel I get better results by also heat setting.

8.   To heat set  (after completing steps1-6) pour off dye bath and place  reed into black plastic bags and place in a sunny spot out doors for a day or two then rinse until the water runs clear.  I have found that dyes will eventually stop bleeding when rinsed enough and are very permanent light fast.  However, this may take a lot of rinsing since not all of the dye bonds completely with the reed.