Mid Winter Dye

I had a free day to play last week after a trip to visit DS for his Birthday. Our neighbour has a gorgeous camellia bush that overhangs our side of the fence. As I was out hanging the washing the red camellia flowers on the ground were so inviting that I had to put on a batch of dye.

I stewed together a concoction of camellia flowers and rain water for about an hour. In the meantime I prepared some bundles with eucalyptus leaves, and some weeds I gathered on the drive from DS's home.

Forgot to say, I mordanted some silk in alum to take with me to DS's, but I didn't have time to do dyeing while I was there. So I'm using them for these bundles. I steamed the bundles in the camellia concoction for an hour. After turning off the heat I let the bundles in the liquid soak until the next morning.

I left the bundles covered outside for a full week. Remember it's winter here. I'm pleased that I managed to leave them that long before I opened them. 

This past weekend was busy again so I didn't get a chance to open the bundles until Sunday afternoon. I had a good feeling it was going to be a good batch and I was right. Every bundle turned out great and unexpected. That is the fun of dyeing, unexpected results...

This piece was dyed with weeds and sour grass flowers that give out the yellow colour. The dark spots were created by rusty soda caps I picked up on parking lots. The squashed and rusty ones are best. 

The colour got less intense after the silk got dried. These are all the silk pieces after washing and ironing. It amazed me how different the pieces turned out. They were steamed in the same pot! 

I'm very happy with the silk I got from Ziguzagu this time. It has more body and texture to it.  It feels more like cotton mixed, but it's silk. I'm glad I got the whole bolt of it.  

Until next time

Nat