a journal of original drawings and screen prints of animals


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Friday, June 10, 2011

Natural Dye

Part of this past week has been spent on natural dye. I first did a mordant using an old dye bath of cutch which has a high percentage of tannin. It gives a lovely soft pinkish brown to the fabric. I use mostly linen or linen/cotton blends. The lightest colour though is a cotton twill. I find it interesting to see how the different fabrics take the dye.
The same fabric was then immersed in a bath of logwood which initially looks nothing like these purples but an orange/red instead. I have to say that these purples are still damp, the dried fabric is much lighter unfortunately.
 I was also experimenting with pomegranate which is shown here on the various fabrics I'm using. I find it similar to the onion skins but pomegranate has a lot of tannin in it and so chemically, I guess, it's different.
There is still one more bath that I haven't rinsed yet. I will show you the results of that soon.
In the meantime, have a wonderful weekend. There is lots of work a family events in the cards for me...

3 comments:

  1. I do love the logwood purples. Even if they dry much lighter I bet they are gorgeous! And I never would have guessed that pomegranates would make such a warm mellow color. Just beautiful!

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  2. not only a warm yellow but it has a tendency to knock out whatever colour was done previously!

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