Japanese Indigo

These skeins of yarn (commercial spun, not my spinning) are all dyed with indigo from Japanese Indigo plants (Persicaria Tinctorium) grown at home, on the front room windowsill and in the greenhouse.

The yarns in the top row are a Traub worstead spun wool, in the bottom row spun flamme silk from Gaddum & Gaddum Ltd. (I intend to use these yarns in weaving scarves).

And this is what the plants look like, they are the straggly green leaved plants. The dark leaves belong to basil "Purple Ruffles" and the stoneware pot at the left side of the picture holds a Pelagonium with nutmeg scented leaves.
The seeds arrived in the post last winter from one of my friends in the Online Guild of Weavers Spinners and Dyers, along with instructions for different ways of making dyebaths and some samples from my friend's dyeing.

Following my instructions I found a large Kilner jar, filled it with leaves, covered them with water and left the jar to stand for a few days. The "few days" turned into a week, and the leaves had started to ferment. Gas bubbles pushed the leaves up the jar and it overflowed (note: next time leave a couple of inches empty at top of jar). The liquid at the bottom of the jar looked yellow, and it began to smell like rotting brassicas (i.e. cabbage, another plant in the brassica family).

Even before the dyeing process was begun, it was clear that these leaves contained blue pigment, see what has happened where this leaf is damaged...


Before the dyeing session I also had to prepare the yarns. The wool came in an 100g skein, from which I wound smaller skeins (not weighed, but 12 skeins of differing lengths), and the silk came on a large cone. When the skeins were wound, and loosely tied at least 5 or 6 times per skein, I put them into pans of warm water with detergent and heated them gently for about 20-30 mins. to make sure they were well scoured of any substance (especially lanolin in the wool, seracin in the silk) that might impede dye take-up. After the detergent and anything else was rinsed out, I left them in bowls of water to wait for dyeing.

The dyebath was prepared by warming the jar in a bain marie, created by resting the Kilner jar on the stainless steel basket from my pressure cooker, turned upside down in a 20 litre stainless steel dye bucket.

The instructions said to raise the temperature slowly to 71 degrees centigrade. I actually stopped heating it at 68 degrees. Then, I stained the liquid from the leaves with a nylon sieve that I reserve for dyeing use, poured the liquid into my bucket, and whisked for 20 mins with a slotted stainless steel spoon. At the end of this time the bubbles looked blue.

Why whisk? To introduce air into the liquid and oxidise it (i.e. introduce oxygen). There's a good article about using Indigo in Shibori dyeing in the latest Journal. Author Jane Callender explains how the oxidisation causes two indoxyl molecules (which are unstable) to combine and form the blue pigment indigotin.

The next stage was to add an alkali liquid to the dyebath to adjust the pH level. I was going to use "washing soda", but my dyeing instructions did not tell me how to make the liquid.

I recalled that I have a little booklet from Helen Melvin: "The Colour of Sea & Sky: The Art of Dyeing Indigo". I ran to find it, confident that she would have explained this - and there it was, p.9. 4 tablespoons Soda Ash into a litre of very hot water. Thank you Helen! It was like having a friend on hand when I needed you.

The dyebath was returned to the electric hob and warmed up to 50 degrees, and then half a spoon of "spectralite" sprinkled on the surface. This is a reducing agent (reduction is the removal of oxygen). Jane Callender says " a reducing agent... removes or 'digests' some oxygen from the indigo [and] causes it to change to leuco-indigo". The change is visible to the eye, as the dyebath gains a yellow tone, which took my dyebath from very blue to a deep moss green. Good! Just as my instructions said it should... so, time to add a couple of small wet skeins, and leave them 10-15 mins for the dyebath liquid to penetrate. Helen makes the point that leaving material in an indigo dyebath longer does not give a deeper colour. Deeper colours are produced by re-dipping... I remember reading about this before in Jenny Balfour Paul's book "Indigo" which is a wide ranging account of the historical and worldwide traditions of indigo dyeing.


After several skeins had been dyed, the reduced bath became more yellow, and this very yellow looking bath below was the one that actually gave the deepest shades of blue.

I used almost all the bowls and buckets I could find. I had one bowl with wet skeins of wool ready to dye, another with wet silk ready to dye. I had a bowl to rest my sieve on to put yarn in when it was immediately out of the dyebath...

oh, better interupt here. When the yarn is lifted out of a dyebath, like that one pictured above, it looks yellow. The blue colour forms as the pigment oxidises - or takes up oxygen from the air. Magic to watch!

...back to buckets etc, see below, a bowl to rinse the yarn after it has oxidised and turned blue, then a bucket to soak it a while in a strong saline (salt water) solution. A bowl to leave the saline soaked yarns until I get a moment to rinse them. The rinse and the soak in saline are essential to remove excess pigment and fix the colour so it won't rub off the yarn later.

It was all great fun and I was happily "singing the blues" to myself throughout this wonderful dye session.

References:
(article)Indigo and the Tightening Thread, Jane Callender, in The Journal for Weavers, Spinners and Dyers, 231, Autumn 2009;
The Colour of Sea & Sky: The Art of Indigo Dyeing, Helen Melvin, copyright 2007, self-published;
Indigo, Jenny Balfour Paul, 2nd edition pub. Archetype Publications Ltd. 2006, ISBN 1-904982-15-8

Welcome to my library - some books on natural dyeing.

Today, I took time off, left my pre-occupations and hobbies at home and off I went to a secondhand book fair, partly to meet up with a friend, partly because you just never know what you might find in hunting around the book stalls. I often pick up interesting books on all kinds of subjects, e.g. on previous occasions, windmills, cheesemaking, architecture, Escher.

To my amazement, today I found a book I have been wanting, and I'm delighted with it. For just £3 I picked up a very good copy of "A Dyer's Garden", subtitle "from plant to pot - growing dyes for natural fibres", by Rita Buchanan, Interweave Press, 1995, ISBN 1-883010. I don't know how many copies of this special interest book, published in the U.S., might be in circulation in England, probably not many, so I think it was my lucky day. I already have another book by Rita, "A Weavers Garden", in the Dover republication of 1999, ISBN 0-486-40712-8.

The Weaver's garden book covers dye plants, so I'd not been entirely sure that I needed both books. I have discovered the content of the Dyer's book is quite different, and very useful. So, I have discovered that the Weaver's book is not a re-print, it covers different plants and has a more discursive approach. The Dover edition has few pictures, but is a very interesting read. Lots of background research went into the preparation for this book (and there's long lists of further reading). It covers history and chemistry as well as dye methods. It includes plants for soap, fibre, fragrance (e.g. to deter moths) and make tools. Both books include suggestions of planting schemes for different gardens.

The Dyer's book is smaller, and it's pretty. After chapters on choosing and growing plants, planning a garden, the basics of dyeing and a whole chapter on colours, the second half of the book is all double-page spreads each featuring a different plant. It has a picture of the plant, information about the plant and how to grow it and, on the facing page, dyeing information with a range of colour samples (in photos).

Both books are lovely, very readable.

As you will see from the picture above, I already had a number of books on dyeing. They all have different information and I value them all for different reasons, which I will tell you about in future posts. However, in the meantime you can see my review of a newly published book, Natural Dyes, by Linda Rudkin, pub. A & C Black 2007, The Textiles Handbook Series, ISBN 978-0-7136-7955-7 on the Textile Directory web site.

Dyes from Dock seed heads

Just a quick photo here to show the colours I obtained from the pre-soaked seed heads of the broad leaf dock plant, Rumex obtusifolius. For several weeks I kept checking the plants (which grow wild in our garden) to see when the seeds would be ready. I was keen to try using the seed heads after reading in Su Grierson's book "The Colour Cauldron" (self published, 1979 reprint, now out of print) that a red dye could be obtained if the seed heads were given regular heating over a few days. She obtained apricot / caramel shades and first and thought this red was coming through because of decomposition of the dyestuff. I think I should have used more plant material to get a stronger colour.

I didn't get to the brick red she described, but in the sample on the left of this picture you can see a more pink/red tone coming through. This wool sample was dyed three days after the others, with approx 3 hours heating of the dye bath in total before dyeing. Next springtime I shall try again, as I am told that the young spring leaves also give reds.

The samples to the right are, far right, with after mordant tin (stannous chloride), centre with after mordant iron (ferrous sulphate) and then both the samples on the left are only treated, as all this wool was, my usual pre-mordant of 10% alum (potassium aluminium sulphate) and 8% cream of tartar (potassium hydrogen tartrate). The wool is superwashed merino, again.

Dyeing with Goldenrod

Here in a suitably yellow bucket are Goldenrod stems, leaves and flowers, picked from the garden, ready to prepare a dye bath.

I planted Goldenrod plants in my garden last year. I was very kindly sent an envelope full of roots last springtime by an Online Guild friend, Mary Carbert.

Mary grows many plants for use in dyeing, and is the daughter of an expert, Jill Goodwin, whose wonderful book "A Dyers Manual" is based on many years of practical experience. Mary is the publisher of the current edition of the book. Click on the title here for a link to a website to learn more about "A Dyers Manual" and its author. This is one of those books I treasure for being good to read, as well as being full of useful information. Just one thing I like about it is long list of common dye plants, giving English and Latin names, and listing the different colours that can be obtained with different mordants. It's a good quality edition, printed on very good paper and well bound, which I also think is important as this is a book that I pick up to read or for reference time and time again.

This next photo shows results from the dyeing with Goldenrod. From the right, the pale yellow was obtained on superwashed merino wool with just my usual pre-mordant of 10% alum (potassium aluminium sulphate) and 8% cream of tartar (potassium hydrogen tartrate). The bright yellow appeared when I added an after mordant of a pinch of tin (stannous chloride) and the green shades on the left came from an after-mordant of iron (ferrous sulphate)










The skeins of green (handspun) yarn you see on the left are shown again in the next photograph. It was Mary who prompted this, she said she had had lovely greens on grey wool. The two yarns on the left are grey Cheviot sheep, and on the right, light grey Suffolk. I am delighted with these green yarns, I think I will use them to knit a stripy beanie hat.

Dye plants - in photographs.

Here's a photo of my dye plant patch. As you can see, the Dyers Chamomile (yellow flowers) is thriving. It flowered most of the winter and after a brief rest, it's madly flowering again. I've had lovely bright clear yellow dye from this plant on wool pre-mordanted with alum (potassium aluminium sulphate)and cream of tartar (potassium hydrogen tartrate). I have heard a good green can be obtained by adding iron (ferrous sulphate) as an after mordant, but not tried this yet. As you can see, it's also a cheerful addition to the garden and lasts for a week or so as a cut flower.

I forget how many Dyers Chamomile plants you're looking at in that picture, we planted most of the seed packet, and they all grew. They were tidy little plants when they went into the garden, but a year on they are wonderfully large and straggly, tumbling about everywhere and needing trimming back from other plants. I've learnt that they are biennial, so I should collect seed this summer.

Also flowering nicely are the foxgloves. Trying them in the dyebath is a project for the weekend ahead, I've delayed because the bumblebees were enjoying them so much. I've been taking part in a survey of bumblebees in the garden this year through the British Trust for Ornithology's Garden Bird Watch, so I wanted the bees to have some benefit before I gathered the flowers in!

Between the Dyers Chamomile and the foxgloves is Golden Rod, not flowering yet, and at the front of the view there's a little group of Weld plants, too small to see. Hidden in the Dyers Chamomile are bronze fennel, rosemary and agrimony, while beyond it are madder, woad, more weld and broad leaf dock. If you look at the picture closely you might catch a glimpse of the towering teasel plants at the far end of the bed.

I understand that teasel's will give a yellow dye, but I'm growing them because of historical use in raising the nap on woollen cloth - and because they have a special geometrical beauty that has always fascinated me.

Here's a close up of that charming Dyers Chamomile:

I have learnt that many other plants around the garden that are useful for dyeing, some of them more often called "weeds". Now I've found I can get photos on my blog I shall take some more photos so you can share the results of my wool-dyeing experiments.

Having read this far you'll be thinking that I've fixed my problem with uploading photos - well, no, not exactly. I have established that I can't upload from my home computer to anywhere I tried - blogger, flickr, photobucket, yahoo groups. Whichever, I get messages about the connection being reset. It's probably because I use an unusual combination of operating system and web browser (Suse 9.1 plus Firefox 2.0.0.4). I know lots of other people have similar problems as I've been through the blogger help pages and support group. I suspect a CGI script problem. I'm thoroughly fed up with sitting at computers this week, I have that bashing my head against a wall feeling.

What I've done is take the easiest route around the problem. I loaded my photos on a floppy disk and have called in to the local library to use one of their computers. As the old saying goes, where there's a will there's a way! Thank you to everyone who left encouraging comments after my first post. Having proved I can do this, I can concentrate on getting some interesting content prepared for next time.