During the course of research for Research point 1.1 I spent time reading Claire Wellesley-Smith’s Slow Stitch book and in particular the section on natural dyeing which I have a keen interest in developing as part of my textile practice.  I first experimented with solar dyeing during Contemporary Context as I worked on a nature inspired project and as a consequence I made a conscious decision to plant specific flowers earlier this year in order to continue exploring this subject or repeat some experiments.

Unfortunately the weather this year has meant I have had mixed success with my garden flowers particularly as I have worked towards making my garden  as organic as possible including finally stopping using any slug treatments that may either harm the soil or any wildlife – the use of copper tape and garlic spray as alternative treatments.  Unfortunately the slugs have been prolific this year and have decided to enjoy an all-you-can-eat buffet particularly with the purposefully planted marigolds and countless seedlings which meant more copper tape has been added to more tubs – next year I will be almost purchasing the company that makes it!!

However, the marigolds that are the first to flower have produced enough blooms to add to 2 jars with onion skins that I have collected added to a further 2 – my jars are only approximately 500 ml in size and over the course of the coming winter I am looking to purchase much larger ones  in order to being able to dye larger quantities of fabric (this statement has a slight deja vu feeling as I recall saying the same thing last summer!).

The white yarn and fabrics are both primarily pure cotton or cotton/linen mix and in quantities of approximately 1/2 metre of fabric and small skeins for the yarns of unknown exact length (both were kindly donated to me).

Last summer’s experiments taught me that pre-soaking in plain water and then concurrent mordanting was far more successful with regards to fixing the dye into the fabrics than pre-mordanting and then solar dyeing in plain water.  Due to financial constraints alum is the only mordant I have in stock at this present time and much to my frustration I have not discovered any sufficiently rusted nails or items during a recent kitchen renovation. I added approximately 1/4 to 1/2 teaspoon of alum and the same of cream of tartar to a small quantity of luke warm water in the jars before adding the fabric and dye stuffs and then topping up with plain water and sealing the jars.

All of the jars have been put in my small plastic greenhouse and will be monitored on a daily basis until I feel the dye has been taken up by the fabric and yarn and I will update this post appropriately.

3 August 2019

Due to the variations in weather that the UK has been experiencing I took the decision to stop the first sets of jars as the fabrics and yarns seem to have taken up the dye relatively well.

Both photos below were taken after approximately 5 days and required a little stirring in order to distribute the dyed water – my feeling is that I have not  used sufficient plant material to create deep tones but this is something I can rectify in future jars if required.

Upon rinsing out the fabrics I found myself pleasantly surprised particularly with regards to the jars filled with onion skins – the fabric has a mottled effect where the skins have been in direct contact and has tones ranging from a very pale to much deeper, almost orange golden yellow.  The marigold dye produced again slightly mottled effects on the fabric, through being in direct contact, but in much paler lemon hues with what appears to be pale green undertones.

The yarns during the washing period became somewhat entangled but the dye stuffs have produced similar hues to their fabric counterparts – in reality the yarns are slightly deeper tones than is represented in the photograph.  When I have a little patience it will be relatively easy to separate the yarns into their respective marigold and onion skin dyed skeins and I will update this blog when that is completed.

I have immediately set up further solar dye jars using the same concurrent mordant/cream of tartar ratio but with the following dye stuffs:

• The left hand image contains rose petals and the right jar contains red begonias.
• The right hand images  shows sunflower petals and marigolds in the left hand jar and fuchsia blooms.

August 4th

Slight surprise this morning due the jar containing purely sunflower petals and marigold petals as the dye already beginning to seep out is a pale pink hue – I suspect this is due to the  fact that some of the marigolds used in this jar are a deep orange/red variety although looking back at my first jar this appears to have had similar petals.

I will be adding more plant material to this jar plus also the other jars as it becomes available and in addition in the next day or so will also be adding some yarn.