Recent Entries

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!admin

Looking for a new administrator

This community seems to be pretty dead these days, and my interests have shifted away from the, so I'm trying to clean up my mental clutter, since I disappeared from DW for a couple years there. Would anyone else be interested in taking over as administrator in case the community revives in the future?

Green dye from red onion skins?

OK--I know you can do this cause I've seen the results, but unfortunately, a lot of the stuff I see on using red onions shows a brownish color resulting. One site mentioned using vinegar as the mordant in order to draw out the green, but something about that sounds fishy, so I thought I'd ask around here: anyone use red onion skins to get green? What mordant/process did you use? Any cautions, such as "Hey, don't boil that, it'll turn brown" and similar?

Thanks!

Indigo and alkanet

Still need to pick up a strainer so I can extract cochineal, but in the meantime I used isopropyl alcohol to extract dye from alkanet, and played more with my indigo vat (of course).
( Pictures! )

Indigo!

I've just started playing with natural dyes, first picking them out of my back yard and then, when I got tired of turning things yellow, buying them. So far I've used madder (my method was problematic, but I just wanted yarn that wasn't YELLOW) and indigo, and I am sort of in love with the magic of indigo (I used the Jacquard pre-reduced indigo kit).

Pics of dandelion dye, one of three skeins of various yellow (don't even talk to me about red cabbage, I discovered I just can't stand the smell long enough to dye things with it), a couple of madder dyed yarn, and mostly indigo! are over here at my flickr account.

This weekend I'm planning to do either alkanet (if I remember to pick up isopropyl alcohol) or cochineal, more updates as events warrant. ;)

Mushroom dyes

Note: I haven't tried this yet so can't yet verify how it actually works.

There was a meeting of the Mycological Association of Washington (MAW) this evening. The speaker was Susan Hopkins, who gave a talk on making textile dyes from various types of mushrooms. During the talk, she distributed a handout titled, "The Best Mushrooms for Color: A short Selection of the Best Mushrooms to Dye Wool". My favorite mushroom dye was made from the Hapalopilus Nidulans, which turns a vivid purple when mixed with a strong alkaline like ammonia or potassium hydroxide. That's something I'd like to try - it's a local mushroom so I may be able to find some around where I live. From class notes: ( The dying process )
This link shows other dyes that can be made with local mushrooms, some of which I may be able to grow myself. I've had some luck with growing Reishis, which make rust colored dye. Mushrooms for Dyes, Paper, Pigments & Myco-Stix™ by Miriam Rice contains additional information about mushroom dyes.