Lichen, Persimmon Vintages and fresh Weld results

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.

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…..

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.

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!

Top 2011 vintage
Middle 2012 vintage
Bottom 2013 fresh dip

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

Before Orvus wash

After Orvus wash