Thursday, June 30, 2011

More on Dyes

Today Jacob and I removed our T-shirts from the plant dye after 3 days of soaking. We used Genista tinctoria, known as Dyer's Greenwood and also called Woadwaxen. It boils to a beautiful yellow color that really takes well to a T-shirt. Mine was originally an off-white color with a green pattern painted on it. It looks a lot better now with the contrast between the green and yellow. I am going to have to dye more shirts using Dyer's Greenwood and other plants. T-shirt is too boring? No problem, boil some plants and add some color! I might have to try a natural tie-dye shirt. That would be really fun.

Here's the shirt with a sprig of Dyer's Greenwood on it.

2 comments:

  1. Working with the dyes was really interesting. This is something that can be as easy as boiling some water with turmeric and vinegar, or as complicated as a three day process going from one vat to the next. Different colors and different fabrics have different properties and there is a lot of chemistry going on. I feel like this is something that would be really good to experiment with and perhaps come up with some unique local pigments!

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  2. Yeah it's amazing how much nature can provide. I'd really just like to be all set with going to stores, for anything. Malls don't really impress me. We should have a Sterling handcrafts fair. Those are fun.

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