Green secrets
The most challenging task in natural dyeing is to get green color. The best way to get rich green tones is to overdye yellows with indigo.Staff and equipment needed: mordanted silk scarf; yellow natural dye or plants (choose one - weld, cutch, birch leaves, french marigold, dyers chamomilla, onion skins, or any other), natural indigo and vat (calx, fructose). Equipment - pot for dyeing of fabric, bucket for indigo vat, glass jars.
Please follow up safety tips when working with powders - natural dyes, alum, lime (calx).
Getting yellow
The process starts with mordanting silk with alum (10-15% WOF) and gathering plants. I like to leave silk in mordant solution overnight. The same with plants - I put them in the pot, pour with very hot water and leave overnight. In the morning I warm up "the soup" with plants for about 30 minutes, leave the pot for an hour to cool down. After that I filter this soup and this process is perfect with the help of thighs (yes, the same tights women are wearing...). Add the silk in the pot with a filtered solution and put it to slowly simmer for 30-40 minutes. Rotate silk often and make sure that it is fully immersed in the dye bath.
Indigo with 1-2-3 vat
While dyeing silk in yellow, it is time to prepare indigo vat for further work. I love to work with 1-2-3 vat.Indigo can be used to dye any natural fibers, not synthetics. You can dye fabric, yarn, garments, wood, anything that you like, and any fiber, such as cotton, linen, wool, silk, bamboo, rayon, hemp, etc.
The usual recipe: 1 part indigo, 2 parts pickling lime (calx, calcium hydroxide), 3 parts fruit sugar (fructose). We advise you to leave a bit lime and fructose for later (maybe there will be a need to rebalance vat during the dyeing process). Fructose removes excess oxygen in the indigo solution. Pickling lime makes the vat alkaline and helps dissolve the indigo. I prefer to use food or laboratory reagent grade lime (calx).
- Mix indigo with a small amount of warm water to make a paste in the small glass jar. Add 1/2 cup of very hot water and stir well. Add the fructose. Stir well.
- Add the lime (calx) and stir well and keep stirring for minutes. Add about 1-2 cups of warm water. Stir well again and then allow to settle. The solution will be dark blue. Put the jar in a pot with warm water (make a water bath) and keep some time.
- Watch for the first bubble. This means that the fermentation process started. The solution will become greenish and a clear line of sediment at the bottom of the jar will appear.
- The solution is ready when it has turned greenish, brownish, or reddish yellow. You will see bubbles on the surface of the solution (indigo flower) and see a metallic coppery scum.
Overdyeing with indigo
Once the jar of indigo solution is ready, stir it and then add it to the bucket filled with warm water (1-1,5 gallons). The vat will have a murky, yellowish color. Let the dye sit for about 10-15 minutes. Wait for the indigo flower and coppery scum developing again.Dip the wet material (yellow scarf) into the indigo bath and hold under the surface of the vat rotating the piece. Try not to stir bubbles. Try to keep the material in the middle region of the bucket. Avoid going to low in an organic vat (there is some sediment from lime (calx).
Keep the material in the vat for 1 minute rotating it, then quickly remove and allow the excess indigo to drip off into a bucket.
Hang the material in the air to oxidize for 5-10 minutes (for silk).
Watch the beautiful green color appearing. If needed, repeat the process once or twice while the desired color achieved.
Great news - you could reuse the first dye bath and indigo vat in your next project! Do not pour them away. Just keep them securely in the bucket with lid or big glass jar.
Safety tips when working with powders - alum, Ferrum sulfate, calx
Do not breathe dust, use protective gloves when preparing vat and dyeing materials.Do not touch eyes with hands or better use protective eyewear.
If in eyes - rinse continuously with water for several minutes.
Please keep all powders away from the kitchen and food.
Please keep them away from children and pets.
Please wash well ar dyed and painted fabric - to remove the excess of chemicals used in the process.
Share with us your results
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