Mmmmm, silk Sunday, Mar 9 2008 

fabric and fiber arts and projects Melissa Barton 6:57 am

Today I went to the annual bolt end sale of super-expensive men’s tie and waistcoat manufacturers Carrot and Gibbs. Absolutely stunning 100% Italian silk brocades and prints, many darn close to period and probably mind-bogglingly expensive, for $5 or less a yard (almost all 28″ wide, though, with rarely enough on the bolt end for a full garment).

I got a lot of bits I could make doublets or hoods or corset outer layers out of, and hopefully enough of a gorgeous purple and red brocade to get a cotehardie out of if I piece extremely carefully. Melchior bought some silk and also snapped up the last yard of a brown 100% cashmere that feels like a dream. C&G isn’t going to make any more cashmere scarves because the fabric’s too expensive, so alas, none of that next year.

I shall post pictures later! Melchior is thinking of making a swatch book of his fabric stash, and given that our collective stashed take up half the hall closet and a large chunk of the living room, I think he is onto something. It will certainly make it easier to see what I have when I’m working on a project.

And after a few years of this sale and projects from the fabric, I may have enough silk brocade scraps left over to made a crazy-quilt dan-gawari kosode! :-D

 

Dock update Tuesday, Sep 18 2007 

fiber arts and natural dyes Melissa Barton 4:03 am

Per a recipe in Navajo and Hopi Dyes, I soaked the dock roots overnight, carefully peeled them (I am suspecting the dedicated vegetable peeler will need to be replaced frequently, as the larger dock roots are very woody and tough–the peeler was noticeably duller when I finished), and returned them to the soaking water. I think I will purchase a vegetable grater (cheaper than a coffee grinder). When we’re ready to dye, we will heat up the dyebath.

Even soaking for a day in mildly warm water, the water took on enough yellow to stain my hands. The roots varied in color from almost white to yellow to orange–I don’t know if this makes enough of a difference to require sorting by color.

Am thinking we should order a bit of tin to try to bring out the orange/rust shades with the dock.

 

Furthur notes on dock Monday, Sep 17 2007 

fiber arts and natural dyes Melissa Barton 6:34 pm

Some interesting colors from dock seeds.

I’ve found references to colors ranging from yellow to orange or brown to oxblood red from dock seed heads, depending on when they are picked and the treatment. I’m beginning to wish we’d weighed ours and set up several jars to experiment more scientifically, but hey, there are fields of dock all over my neighborhood, so I suppose there’s yet time. The rapid coloration of the cold dyebath just surprised me because nothing like that happened last time I tried dyeing with dock seeds. We shall see what happens!

I’m trying to decide whether to buy Cheryl Kolander’s Brilliant Colors with Natural Dyes. It appears to focus primarily on silk rather than wool (unlike just about every other dye book published, grr), but the pricetag is steep and I am budgeting for some of Margo Anderson’s patterns.

 

Foraying into natural dyes Monday, Sep 17 2007 

fiber arts and natural dyes Melissa Barton 2:41 am

Today my lord and I and a friend started some jars of plants for dyeing. Since we haven’t purchased silk floss yet (uses: embroidery, tablet and inkle weaving, thread-wrapped buttons, tassels…), we plan to heat up the jars a few times, leave them in the sun when possible (our porch gets little sun, alas), and dye fiber when the dyebaths are nice and strong and we actually have the fiber mordanted and ready to go.

At the moment, the jars are as follows:

  • Rabbitbrush (Chrysothamnus sp.)
  • Great mullein (Verbascum thapsus)
  • Sage (Artemesia sp. — not A. tridentata, so I’ll have to look it up)
  • Cottonwood (Populus sp.)
  • Dock seeds and roots (Rumex sp.)
  • Mysterious yellow flowers (probably something in the Asteraceae)
  • Mysterious leaves from shrub with nasty thorns

We pretty much expect shades of yellow–most of the dyebaths really need to be heated for color–solar dyeing only works if you get a reasonable amount of sun to put the jars in.

The dock seeds were pretty interesting, though–the seed clusters at this time of year are a bright red-brown. After half-filling a jar and pouring cold (!) water in, the water immediately took on a rich gold color, which has deepened over the last few hours to a reddish-orange, still cold. One hopes some of that color will go into the fiber. We’re thinking of heating the bath to get the maximum color out, straining it, and using the same water to steep a few more batches of dock seeds. Since the seeds are so light, it would be difficult to get a good ratio to fiber weight otherwise.

The dock roots were huge (and rather hard to dig out of the dry rocky ground) and are bright yellow inside. They are soaking overnight and tomorrow I will peel them and crush them up.

We’re starting with gathered yellows because it’s a good time of year to play around with that sort of thing. After that, I have a lot of dried Haas avocado skins saved over the years, plus a variety of bought dyestuffs (black walnut, cutch, brazilwood, cochineal, indigo, alkanet, and madder). I’d like to experiment with some different methods for the alkanet to test a hypothesis I have about traditional Japanese dye methods. And I’d also like to try eucalyptus for reds and oranges, if I can find a good florist that doesn’t use glycerin to preserve it.