Botanical Dye Research and Testing
Botanical Dye Research and Testing
Mordant: alum sulfate
Dye: red cabbage
Material: (left) unbleached muslin, (right) bleached muslin
Analysis: This is a beautiful dusty purple, but the colorfastness is low with red cabbage. The dyes wash out over a short period of time.
Mordant: alum sulfate
Post Mordant: baking powder
Dye: red cabbage
Material: (left) unbleached muslin, (right) bleached muslin
Analysis: Some problems with colorfastness. Will look into alternatives for these purple and mint tones that are able to survive in the fabric longer.
Mordant: alum sulfate
Dye: avocado pits
Material: (left) unbleached muslin, (right) bleached muslin
Analysis: Avocado pits create a nice earthy pink. Mordant is not necessary because of the tannin in the pit.
Mordant: Alum sulfate
Dye: onion skins
Material: (left) unbleached muslin, (right) bleached muslin
Analysis: Yellow onions yielded the most vibrant colors while maintaining high color fastness.
This picture shows two swatches dyed with avocado pits, the left was mordanted with alum acetate, the right was mordanted with alum sulfate. Alum acetate yielded brighter color and is seen as the best mordant for plant fibers (which we will be entirely working with). The downside is it seems to be less human friendly as alum sulfate is a food grade spice.
Mordant: alum acetate
Dye: avocado pits
Post Mordant: iron bath
Analysis: The amount of iron increased in the bath as time progressed. The swatch on the left was not treated with iron, and the far right was in the bath for the longest. The second and third were treated with 1/5 teaspoon of iron and the fourth and fifth a full teaspoon.
Mordant: alum acetate
Dye: pomegranate skins
Post Mordant: iron bath
Analysis: The amount of iron increased in the bath as time progressed. The swatch on the left was not treated with iron, and the far right was in the bath for the longest. The second and third were treated with 1/5 teaspoon of iron and the fourth and fifth a full teaspoon.
The swatches are dyed with madder powder, the first two panels were washed after soaking in the dry bath for 24 hours. The next four panels were treated with ferrous sulfate following the dye bath at increasing concentrations for 1/20 of a teaspoon to 1 teaspoon. We expected this to react more dramatically to the iron, but they are not rich in tenants like the avocado and pomegranate dies. We used 100% WOS of the madder powder for this dye bath, but it did not yield the red color we were anticipating. Moving forward we anticipate to scour the fibers properly with soda ash before mordanting. We were under the impression that a wash would be enough to remove chemicals but now realize this is incorrect. The mordanting process will also be improved by soaking the fabric in gallnut extract before alum acetate which is rich in tannins.
This group of swatches were dyed with chlorophyllin in that was extracted from alfalfa. The ladder for panels were treated with iron in the same increasing concentration as the matter swatches. It is clear that the color does not continue to darken when treated with additional iron, the same color shift occurs with all concentrations.
The swatches show the results from our first indigo fructose vat. The first swatch was dipped one time in the indigo, next 3 dips, 6 dips, 9 dips, 13 dips, and 16 dips. We let these oxidize for an average of 45 minutes between dips. They were then left oxidize for 24 hours before the final rinse. We were originally concerned with letting too much oxygen into the vet but it was surprisingly simple to avoiding dripping. We noticed that the number of dips increased past a certain point had no effect on the shade. We would need to dip over the course of a few days in order to achieve a dark navy.
These images show the chlorophyllin, madder, avocado, and pomegranate dyes top to bottom. They were soaked in 1 teaspoon of ferrous sulfate post-dye. The left photo was before they were washed, and the right was after two wash and dry cycles. The chlorophyllin and madder swatches faded about two shades. The avocado and pomegranate on the other hand stayed almost the exact same shade. We concluded this is attributed to their tannin- rich make up.