Pages

Thursday 28 July 2011

Compost dyeing

To dye with natural dyes you usually need dyestuffs from wich to extract pigments, mordants to bind them to the fiber and heat to set it all in motion. This time I left out the last and used the power of mold instead. The technique is called compost dyeing and it goes like this: First you scatter the vegetal matter on the damp fabric, you can use anything, leaves, lichens...I mostly used lichens, because I read that they work specially well with this technique, I also used onion skins and eucalyptus leaves. Then you must wrap it in plastic film to keep the humidity within and let it rot for a couple of months. I left it fo or two months. At first I thought I wouldn't be able to stand the impatience, but I scarcely gave my stinky wrap a thought in all this time. I forgot to take pictures when I prepared the packet, so all the pictures are from when I opened it, with the emotion of a christams morning.
Wouldn't it be nice to be able to photograph smells?



Unfortunately at some points the wools itself rot and broke.






I think next time it needs more dyestuff.

Friday 22 July 2011

The never ending brown

Spun form several tops dyed with different dyestuffs that gave it different shades of brown and russet. Unfortunatly you can't apreciate the colours very well in the pictures.

I don't know why it took me so long to spin it, it was like if the fiber had no end.

100g, 100% merino superwash, 2 ply, 550 m.