an artists' view

an artists' view

Saturday 21 September 2013

woad - dyeing for a result

I've had this fabric in a small dye-pot of woad. I folded it, and clipped the folded cloth, but there are only the most subtle of lines to see. It's still a mottled, patterned effect, which is nice.
My brother bought me some woad powder a couple of xmases ago, but I've only got round to using it this summer. I used the good ole interweb to seek out recipes, and discovered that urine was traditionally used with woad. So; I collected the urine; I 'took the piss', and mixed up the powder.
This was my second use of this dye-pot; my first go was to dye a white cotton top that a friend had given me. I tie-dyed it, to lovely effect. Will get that posted another time. I've worn it, washed it, and worn it again. I hand wash it, in ecover washing liquid, to avoid any bleaching effect from biological washes. It's fine so far.
This fabric will get used on some piece or other; no idea yet! I'm planning to pop another cloth into what's left in the dye-pot, to get what I can out of it, before I have to dump the remains in the compost.
Blimey though; you DO need a lid when using urine for the mordant! It absolutely REEKS!!!!!  
And the call has gone out for walnuts!
Having read and seen the results of walnut dye, as it is the season for them, I've got people out asking around for walnut tree owners, to see if I can have some fruit. I'm also gonna do the supermarket looksee, and try and find them there. And a friend has got a packet of walnuts from last year, which she says I'm welcome to use. I don't know how well walnuts last, or keep, and how well the dye comes out when they're not fresh, so I'm gonna hedge my bets, and experiment with fresher ones, and her older ones.
The alchemical kitchen is twitching, getting ready to crank up once more!

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