Surprising Results

While my noggin is taking a beating from this fierce head cold, I figured you should look at some things I've done! 

Above: pre-mordanting some wools and silk in an alum and tartar solution (note: the dye kitchen doesn't have a proper scale, so I had to eyeball the amounts), and in the pot on the right, a rose-hip dye extraction. This was from that demo...

I banged off a scarf in record time! All of these cotton scarves are blank canvases for dye experiments. If they turn out well, I'll sell 'em.

Below: dye experiments! Gorgeous, fascinating dye experiments! These two were coloured by horse chestnut hulls. The top photo, though out of focus, shows the samples after an iron post-mordant. LOOK AT THAT BLUE! 

And without iron, you get lovely champagne and nude tones. It's incredible that the colour shifted so drastically AND only on the cotton and silk! The cotton was pre-mordanted with milk and an ammonia solution. I am also testing cotton with a tannin solution, so we'll have to wait and see how effective it is. 

These next two photos show the rose hip bath. Similar nudes and champagnes, but wait till you see the results of the iron post-mordant...

TADA! BLUE! Logwood blue on cotton and silk! Amazing!

And here are all of those little samples lined up in my book. The colour's a bit off in the photo, but you get the idea. The horse chestnut blues are far more yellow than the purple blues from the rose hips. 

I need to spend some time in the BAC driveway collecting walnuts and horse chestnuts before they get carted off by squirrels or shredded by lawnmowers.