The cotton had been mordanted in alum a long time ago; in fact when I gave up on the tempting idea of natural dyeing feeling that I didn’t really have enough space or energy. I have washed these pieces and the colour seems stable, although it may fade with time.Wednesday, August 26, 2009
Elderberries
I made my first attempt at making Elderberry Jelly this week. I added plenty of lemon juice but it took two attempts to get a set. Left with the debris from the jelly bag I was inspired by Cathy Cullis’ description of no pain natural dyeing to just dunk some pieces of cotton into the jug and see what happened.
The cotton had been mordanted in alum a long time ago; in fact when I gave up on the tempting idea of natural dyeing feeling that I didn’t really have enough space or energy. I have washed these pieces and the colour seems stable, although it may fade with time.
The cotton had been mordanted in alum a long time ago; in fact when I gave up on the tempting idea of natural dyeing feeling that I didn’t really have enough space or energy. I have washed these pieces and the colour seems stable, although it may fade with time.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
Jackie, the colour result is lovely, I hope you enjoy your dye experiments. At the moment I keep looking at blackberries - but most of them end up in a pie rather than a dye pot.
ReplyDeleteBeautiful colours achieved with the berries. I tried blueberries which gave a very deep dark purple even on unmordanted fabrics. I'm hoping to go picking next week. I want to make bramble jelly
ReplyDeleteBeautiful, Jackie. Hope the color is stable over time. I've had such mixed results with natural dyes -- regardless of whether I've used the dyestuffs themselves or extracts.
ReplyDeleteElderberries. I wonder if we have them around here but call them something else. I have never heard of an elderberry. Looks interesting, though.
ReplyDeleteThis comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteOh, I had forgotten all about this post when this morning at the Farmers Market we bought... elderberries!
ReplyDeleteAfter the husband uses them to flavor some "likker" (this is definitley not a gentle liqueur) I'll have to try using the leftovers to dye with!
(Deleted and reposted because the intial speling errors made it appear that I'd already been sampling his efforts!)
What a wonderful, soft color!
ReplyDelete