Natural Dyeing-As Easy As Tea

1. Introduction: Wouldn't it be nice if you could customise the color off your accessories? Your home to core items? I'm Debbie Greenlaw, the owner of Flora and Fiber Ah Fiber art studio, dedicated to providing inspiration, education and products that will help you to make your own handcrafted creations. Green pastures Form is home to floor and fiber. My husband and I have lovingly restored are 14.5 acres with the intent of learning and sharing skills that were important to our ancestors through floor and fiber. I offer simple and fun approach to preserving and creating handcrafted traditions such a spinning, weaving and dying. We share our farm with dick dairy, goats, chickens, how many donkey and, of course, our dog and cat. As a master gardener, I have combined two of my passions by planting and harvesting plants that can then be used to dye my fibers and fabrics. I want to share my knowledge of natural dying with you because it's so fun in this class, I'll introduce you to dine with natural materials. I'll be demonstrating the process using to work a common item that's found in the spice section of your local ghost grocery store. In fact, many of you are likely to have to mark already in your kitchen to mark dies a bright yellow . I'll walk you through the steps of dying, an object of your choice. You might want to die a silk scarf like I did, but you could also try a cloth napkin, a cotton shopping bag, ribbon yarn fabric. These are just a few of the ideas. Once you've been rolling the class, you have access to a Pdf download, which lists the supplies you'll need. The basic steps in the process and a few of my favorite resource is the dying process is really easy, as simple as making tea. And by the end of the class, you'll know the basics of natural dying and have a unique hand dyed creation to share with all of us. Hit and roll and let's have some fun. I can't wait to see what you create. Uh, 2. What is a Natural Dye: welcome back. So what is a natural dye? A. Natural dye is a chemical produced by plants or animals that's used to produce colors. For thousands of years, humans have been dying things. Clothing, pottery, baskets, died items have been found in ancient artwork and in the clothing and objects at per middle burial sites. But synthetic dyes were not invented until the mid 18 hundreds, so before this, all colors came from natural sources. One of the oldest natural dyes is Kocian Neil, which produces beautiful shades of red. Think royal robes. Believe it or not, cochineal is an insect found on the prickly pear cactus. It's crushed, and a brilliant red dye is extracted. Most natural dyes are plant based eyes and, as the name implies, comes from various parts of plants being extracted from their flowers. Their leaves bark, mushrooms, roots, fruit and seeds. The colors they offer are varied and could be settled or vibrant. For example, onion skins produce yellows, colors may very depending on the timing in the DI, the concentration of the dieback, various ad actors and what in the material that's died. Black walnut halls produced various shades of brown. Here, you can see two different shades on wool yarn at the top, and the colored difference on silk into go produces shades of blue most familiar to us in denim jeans. These are just a few examples of natural dyes. Some natural dyes will not take to fiber without a morton. A mordant is a metallic agent used in the dying process that helps the color chemically bind to the fiber. Some other dies, such as indigo, are called VAT dyes and require additional steps and a different process to achieve the familiar blue color. However, many plants have the chemistry to allow the color to bind with the fiber without using a morton. And that's what will be using in this class. Some of the easiest natural dyes toe work with are in your kitchen, and that's why I chose to work for this class. To Mark is a plant that yields an orange yellow spice from its route, which is then dried and ground to Mark Di produces a bright yellow. You can use the ground to work found in the spice section of your local grocery store, so we've discussed what natural dyes and the wide variety of colors they could produce. Let's get started on making our own color. Uh, 3. Gathering Supplies: in this lesson, we're going to look at the supplies, will need to die our project. Don't forget to download the pdf that lists the supplies and other resource is for this class. Sasha Door, in her book The Handbook of Natural Plant Dies, said Natural dying is much like cooking, cooking and dying. Share the process of using recipes, finding the right ingredients and timing. You'll notice that much of the supplies we need for our natural dying are the same equipment we use in cooking liquid district washing detergent. You may find many sources that recommend on, and that's what I like to use. A bowl or bucket large enough to soak your object. A cup that will use to mix the die measuring spoon pot stirring utensil like a serving. Spoon old towels that you can use for cleanup and, of course, our tomb work. You also need your stovetop and water, and you may wanna wear old clothes or an apron. Stainless steel or glass equipment is best. They're the easiest to clean, and they won't affect the color from our dies. Aluminum and cast iron could affect the color we achieve. In fact, iron is one of those mornings I talked about in the last lesson and can be used to alter the color from the die plastic or wood or okay. Just know they would become stained. So best to try to use stainless steel or glass. I want to pause here. Invention a word on safety Even though plant dies air natural, that does not mean all natural dyes, air edible and non toxic. Therefore, be will be aware that using the same equipment and utensils for dying and food preparation is not a blanket good policy, but since in this class will be using to work a spice already used in cooking. Using your kitchen utensils will not be problematic, so let's talk about what we're going to die. Natural dyes take especially well to natural fibers, those that come from plants or animals such as wool, silk, linen and cotton. So in choosing an item, you want to look at the label and make sure that it's a natural fiber. It can be a blend such as worn acrylic, but just know that the synthetic acrylic won't take natural dye if you're going to use a blend of natural and synthetic material. It should be mostly natural, saying 80% rule 20% equivalent acrylic. But for the best results, I recommend using 100% natural fiber in a white or very pale color. So what can you die if you're a knitter, crow shayr or weaver like me? Maybe some yard. You might want to try a finished item like a child's ones e a T shirt or scarf like I've done. I've included in the download file a link to Dharma Trading Company, which is an online store where you can purchase a variety of annd ites, silk and cotton items for a very reasonable price. You might try cough napkins or cotton shopping bag. You might want to die. So group, um, for custom gift wrap, look around for what you have. Just remember your item should be cotton woo linen or silk. And for best results, I suggest white or very pale colored item. So now that we have ah, supplies gathered, let's prepare our to Merck die and our item for dying Uh, 4. Preparation for Dyeing: There are a few steps to prepare prior to the actual die process, and that's what will cover in this lesson. Before we start, let's pause again and touch on safety. You'll be working with your stove and hot liquid no different than if you were making soup . So be wise and be careful. The item you will be dying must be clean. In other words, free from natural oils, dirt or any residue. These can prevent color from adhering evenly to the fibers. In the dye world, this process is known a scouring. All right, so we're in the kitchen and we're ready to soak. Scour our, uh, scarf or whatever you're making. I have a bowl of cool, or you could use lukewarm water, and to that, we're gonna add just a drop or two of dishwashing liquid. You don't want to use a lot of soap because we don't want a soap residue where the guy's not going to take well. So if you use too much soap, it's gonna take forever to rinse it clear. You can very gently swish it around a little. Don't make bubbles just gently, and we're gonna let this soak for about 10 minutes. So while my scarf is soaking, I'm gonna prepare my to work die, and I'm gonna use roughly 1/2 a cup of water that you don't have to be exact on that. And to that, I'm gonna add somewhere between 1/4 to 1/2 teaspoon of to work. On my first scarf, I used 1/2 a tea spoon. It was turned out pretty bright yellow to think I'm gonna go for a little paler yellow on this one and just used ah, quarter teaspoon. We're gonna dissolve this and start to dissolve while our item is soaking. Let's talk about working with animal fibers. Animal fibers like wool do not like sudden temperature changes. They will shrink or Matt with hot water or rapid changes from hot to cold water. Have you ever done this to one of your favorite sweaters? You put it in the washer with two hot of water and then had it on a cold water Rinse and you take it out to find a miniature miniature version of your ones. Beautiful cashmere sweater. So remember no hot to cold water changes with animal fibers. A word on silk soup also doesn't like very hot water which causes causes it to lose that beautiful lustre we love about silk. What kind of water should we use for dying? Tap water varies from one community to another. Some tap water is more alkaline. Some is more acidic. Some is more minerals in it, such as iron. All of these things can affect the finer final color you end up with. In fact, did you get more into natural dying? We actually use some of these things to manipulate the color to get different shades. But as this is an introductory course to natural dying, we're not gonna worry about these factors. Just be excited to see whatever color you end up with. Of course, you can always use distilled water, but I'm I'll be just using my local tap water. All right, It's been 10 minutes. We're now going to rinse our item under cool water until the water runs clear of any soap residue. After it's rinsed, we're gonna place it back into the bowl with clean, cool water, just enough water to cover 5. Dye Process: Uh, as I've already said, natural dying is a lot like cooking. In fact, many of the same principles apply. A good way to think about it is like brewing tea. You put your tea bag and water and allow it to steep to the strength of the tea you want. You could just leave the tea bag in cold water, and it would eventually get strong enough. But most of us choose to heat our water so we can speed up the process. The same works was creating a diabetic. We put our dye material into a pot of water to bring the dye color out. Some plants work well in cold water, but most plants respond best just like tea with a hot water process to achieve the desired depth of color, we'll be using the hot water method in this class. So meet me over in the kitchen. We're back. We feel the pot with enough cold water that it will cover item and allow it to move freely . And now we're gonna add the tumor die solution we made in the last lesson and stir that to mix. Next, we're gonna add our pre soaked item to the dieback. We're gonna bring this to a simmer, just watching for the first signs of bubbles. This probably is going to take about 20 minutes, or maybe a little longer to get to a simmer to just be patient. It's important to keep the dieback below a boil in order to avoid felt ing or shrinking. Once it gets to a simmer, we're gonna bring it to 20 or 30 minutes. The longer in the dye bet the darker the color. You can occasionally stir gently so the colors absorbed evenly. So I'm gonna meet you back here in about 20 minutes or so. All right, you've done it when you've reached the desire shade lifter item out of the water. Be very careful. It's hot. You may want to wear heat resistant gloves if the die is not exhausted. In other words, you still have some color in the dye bath. You can use the leftover to die. Another object, although with subsequent dying, the colors are likely to be paler when that when done, this could simply be poured down the drain. Remember, we've just made tumeric t. We're now going to rinse our object in warm water. Remember, we don't want to go from hot to cold. We're gonna rinse thoroughly and gently squeeze out the water. Next, we're gonna hang it to dry. I have drying racks that I use if I'm dying Multiple items. But I've also just used a plastic clothes hanger and hung it in my shower. Just know that if you haven't completely reads the die, some of the drips could stain. So be careful or place something under to protect any surface is that might be affected by the die. You did it. 6. Final Thoughts: as a final part of our class. Let's talk about the care of your beautiful new hand dyed creation. Naturally, died items should be cared for his delicates to breast preserve their color. My personal method is to hand wash in cool water with gentle soap and hang to dry. That said, many just pop into the washer and dryer, just like other items with similar fabrics. My caution would be the color may fade in vibrancy. So what did you make? I can't wait to see the pictures of your project. So now what? Well, try your new skills on another fabric choice. If you use cotton, try something silk but trying item that has already has another color on it. Say something blue over Died with yellow will likely give a shade of green Really branch out and try something that has a pattern like a floral or a plaid. This class has just been an introduction to the vast world of natural dying. There are so many die producing plants available to us as well as many recipes for achieving a palette of colors. I do hope to do more skill share classes on these. I really want to know how you've enjoyed this class. And the best way to do that would be to post comments and especially post pictures of your project. Thank you.