Contemporary sustainable design
Here is my list of important considerations when preparing to prepare plant material for dye extraction: The time of year and maturity of the leaves and plants when we collect them has a real influence in the final result. The same rose bush today might give me different colours to last week’s. Boil the dyestuff …
Scouring is the process of removing any sizing, grease or dirt from fibres in order to improve the amount and even uptake of the dye. Fibres are very diverse (link to the Fibres page under Resources) and need slightly different processes to get fibers ready for dyeing. General considerations when scouring
A mordant is a substance that helps ‘dyeing stuff’ bond to fibres. Mordants are often a metallic salt, but they are also non-metallic substances, such as Tannin and Oxalic Acid that also act as a chemical bridge between the dye and the fabric . Urine, blood, manure, soymilk, rhubarb leaves and persimmons are some examples …