Archive | July, 2013

Lichen Recap

28 Jul

20130728-091657.jpg

I’ve had many questions on my lichen processing. Most of my skeins are mordanted with 12% wof of alum sulfate. sometimes I add 6% Cot.

Here is a recap from my old blog and some great reference links.

Collecting windfall-easiest to peel off branches on wet dew or rainy morning

https://debmcclintock.wordpress.com/2013/01/01/parmotrema-austrosinense/

My old blog, still transferring info slowly and surely with the recipes

http://debmcclintock.com/Debmcclintock/Debs_Dyepot_Blog/Entries/2011/1/31_Lichens_and_Color.html

My photos on my old blog with more process examples:

http://debmcclintock.com/Debmcclintock/Dye_Photos/Pages/Lichens_and_Color.html

A nice article by Glenna Dean in the Turkey Red Journal on lichens. It was nice to meet her to get a scientific point of view on my lichen journey:

http://www.turkeyredjournal.com/archives/V15_I1/dean.html

Finally a group collaboration led by Glenna Dean in comparing our process notes and working thru Glenna’s process in Turkey Red Journal. Most of us had worked with lichens before so there were some great conversations.

http://www.turkeyredjournal.com/archives/V17_I2/Dean.html

And an example of photo synthesis with a different lichen, Teloschistes Exilis

https://debmcclintock.wordpress.com/2012/10/24/teloschistes-exilis/

Enjoy!

Color choices from My Valley

27 Jul

These are my natural color choices for my rugs. Time to figure yield and do some color design! I tend to design my graphic with 3 color triads.

20130727-155123.jpg
And these are my shawl natural color range choices. Twill or satin or lace, want to keep simple to show off colors!

20130727-155431.jpg

Image

Lichen, Persimmon Vintages and fresh Weld results

23 Jul

I am a little late posting my results but better late than never!  May I add that it was not the smartest practice for me to run lichen (purple) and yellow (persimmon and weld) baths at the same time.  I had to be way more obsessive with my pot washing to ensure I did not mix the two colors on my skeins.  I’ve also decide I like running one substrate at a time.  The two type silks and wools work easily in the dye bath but they required different lifting and processing.  That is because I was doing some clean up overdyeing and dyeing some stash busters.  I’ll be more orderly in the future!

Lichen Over dye

This wool was over dyed with my lichen (some leftover 2nd & 3rd exhausts).

The first photo is some easter cedar which was a nice golden beige but I wanted to see what the lichen would do over the beige.

The lower photo is what I got with the lichen over dye. Nice,one really cannot see the yellow beige shining thru the purple lichen.  This is going into my rug planning.

IMG_1279

IMG_1403

Easter cedar over dyed with lichen

In the meantime, I had some silk that I had degummed Rapenzul from Henry’s Attic and some Habu silk.  They both took the 1st exhaust lichen in a very BRIGHT way!  The raw silk really took on a bubble gum pink which is startling to me.  I’m trying to get use to it but I’m thinking an iron overbath might make it more bearable for me.  Or maybe indigo…..it is almost time to do the first indigo harvest…..

IMG_1406

Weld

I tried my fresh weld and got a much fainter yellow on my wools than I got on my silk last year.  So I pulled my dried leaves from last year and cut much more fresh weld and redyed the wools.  Can you see the difference?  Both took on a much deeper yellow.  Still not as bright in comparison to last year’s vibrant yellow on the silk!  These large skeins will be broken down and dipped in indigo to create some greens.


IMG_1391IMG_1402

Cold Persimmon Dips with some Vintage varieties!

Next I had my aged persimmon juice, 2011, 2012 and this year’s 2013.  In my search for black I’ve been holding back some of the persimmon as I harvest it and set it aside to age and see if I can come up with a nice black.  I am very happy with the 2011 color.  There was not too much difference between 2012 and 2013 so I think a two year age is best.   It has deepened considerably and I still have set aside to see what another year does to the color.  The other colors I’ll probably over dye with the upcoming indigo harvest!

IMG_1374

Top 2011 vintage
Middle 2012 vintage
Bottom 2013 fresh dip

IMG_1378

Did 3 dips of 10 minutes with an hour of sun time in between each dip

IMG_1388

Before Orvus wash

IMG_1396

After Orvus wash





Degumming silk

3 Jul

This morning is dedicated to degumming silk. It is a pleasant morning to listen to the kettle sing and watch the cat in his dream of catching hummingbirds.

I did a cold test of Habu’s Kinari N-63B, explained here:
http://www.habutextiles.com/N-64-KINARI

in oak gall, persimmon and two lichens before I degummed or mordanted the silk. The silk literally sucked in the dye without any treatment. Hmmmmm, something to consider in the future.

20130703-095742.jpg

After degumming the silk will make its way thru the mordant prep and finally the dye pot! Two skeins will make their way thru the cold process of persimmon dips and sun darkening. The second two will go thru the high alkaline lichen pot. We’ll see how it holds up. I have confidence it will!

20130703-100153.jpg
Later this afternoon my weld flowers have simmered and are waiting for a wool dip. We’ll see if I simmered enough for 8 ounces of wool!

20130703-100451.jpg

%d bloggers like this: