Eco dyeing and printing

It’s a perfect day for writing. Grey, but warm with the occasional patter of rain on our tin roof. A sound imprinted on most Australians from childhood. It’s a dawn for reflection and The Art Deco Music Collection.

Has a little, superficially insignificant thing stirred you into action? I often dream about learning skills, they’re relatively simple to achieve, but somehow I need a reminder that the time or cost isn’t an extravagance, retirees have it right. The reminder came when my friend confessed her desire to learn Auslan, just for fun. Not astounding in and of itself, but astounding because of its source, a person not disposed to whimsy. She is straightforward-sensible, inclined towards planning and irked by impulse. This change in her was an inspiration, time for me too, to wander off the well-worn path.

Soon after the fates delivered me the Handmaker’s Factory, via an untraceable web of click links. I had decided to book a workshop before I even realised it was on my door steps, 15 minutes’ walk away in Kensington. Good luck or good Google data collection?

Eco dyeing is something that has fascinated and mystified me since I first spied India Flint’s Eco Colour. Complexity lurks beneath the surface of art. It is not as simple as step into your back garden and there are nature’s dyes in all their natural glory. It seemed more like a confusing science experiment of mordants and modifiers, some of which, though natural, could kill you!

Although the internet is abundant with information, nothing really beats learning from an expert. Nichola, of Handmaker’s Factory, broke it down and gave us the confidence to take our knowledge home for our own experiments. We could leave the toxic chromium mixtures for the experts and opt for soy milk and vinegar instead.

I couldn’t rave about Nicholas’ approach enough, minimum lecturing, learning by doing. I highly recommend you take her workshop; you even come away with your own eco dyed silk scarf. Here are a few Eureka moments I had during the workshop, I hope this will encourage you to try doing some eco dyeing yourself. Perhaps this can be your reminder to be inspired? I’d love to see what you come up with.

All the equipment you need is a cooking pot, bucket, steamer and tongs; but save these for eco dyeing, food and dye don’t mix even if it is natural

A mordant helps the dye bond with the fibre, some dyes like eucalyptus contain their own. Although natural dyes are doomed to fade over time, sun and water, a mordant will make colours stronger and last longer. Just add the mordant to a bucket of water and soak. You can pre-mordant whole batch of material, dry it and use it a later date. You can also soak and dry the cloth a few times for extra strength. Watch this space for experiments!

Alum (Aluminium sulphate found in hardware pool department) + cream of tartar (grocery store) is what we used for animal fibres, they are classified as “protein fibre” and take colour more easily

Humble old unsweetened soy milk adds protein to cellulose fibres so the dye sticks. This is an interesting post on cellulose fibres and eco dyeing

Colours will differ depending on the fabric you use, creating colour swatches is a fantastic way to keep track.

When boiled carrot tops create lovely yellow-green colours

Purple cabbage provided a brilliant purple

Eucalyptus leaves have a huge array of colours and can even vary between seasons in the same tree or even from leaves harvested on different sides of the tree! We achieved lovely reddish colours.

Some plants will surprise you with their dye colour, brilliant coloured flowers may have a different colour such as red marigolds being yellow or no colour at all blue hydrangeas hardly left an imprint at all.

You can even change the colour of the fabric after it has been dyed by bathing it in a few teaspoons of a Modifier in water.

The simplest way of modifying the colour is by changing the pH from acidic to alkaline or vice versa. We tried vinegar and washing soda (grocery)

Iron darkens, copper adds green. (iron sulphate and copper sulphate from nurseries or gardening section of local hardware. We used this to dye a concrete slab in New Mexico!

The longer you soak, boil and leave to dry the stronger the colours. Our steamed bundles didn’t have super strong leaf prints because after steaming we only left them an hour or so before unravelling, would be great to see the results of leaving for a few weeks. It’s an exercise in patience!

Do you have any other hints? What passions have you indulged in recently?