Part 2 Texas Madder Root

Back in March I posted the “before” as I prepped to dig my madder root after 3 years of Texas sun and Texas well water (heavy on the limestone/calcium).  So here is the big dig photos.

I separated out the leaves, the large roots and the thin runner roots.  The leaves are soaking (yes, since March) and I plan to run a yellow dye path with them.  I dried the large roots and the thin runner roots and set them aside.  The shrinkage from drying was about 90%.  I’ll have to dig out my #’s but it was significant.  I let the roots dry thru the Texas spring heat from about March 27 to about April 18th.

I did my lazy dyer method with the smaller roots, which was minimal effort, and got a nice coral on my silk.  The roots went back into an Everclear alcohol soak to see if I could pull more color.  I still need to run the big roots but want to use my new silk.  AND of course, I haven’t mordanted that yet.  Always something to catch up on!