Being home and sick sucks. But I try to have a useful existence and I read a lot, mostly random things. Among these random things I found some very interesting sites on dyeing with plants. Among these, fermentation dyeing caught my interest (see here and here more on the process and some beautiful results). I like the fact that it does not use mordants to fix colors. Also, you do not need a heat source, or to bring water to boil or to take care of the wool not to felt. Of course, there are some downsides to this fermentation process: it needs warm days, the fermenting solution stinks, the results are quite unpredictable and it takes more time.
But! Even with all these negative points I decided to give it a go. I decided to experiment more with tree bark and leaves. So I convinced my father in law to go with me foraging in the forest. After a couple of hours walking around we got back with the following: oak bark (Quercus); white alder (Alnus rhombifolia) leaves, roots and twigs; some other type of leaves and twigs that look like a redish alder (no idea what the correct specie is, but they are a lot around here); some wilde liguster (Ligustrum vulgare) dried out twigs; birch bark (Betula papyrifera) from a fallen tree; and a birch fungus (Piptoporus betulinus). After that I added a dried out quince branch (Cydonia oblonga) and some woad leaves (Isatis tinctoria).
So, now I have a lots of containers with different combinations – some only with leaves, some with combination of leaves and twigs, etc etc. I measured the amount of plants in each so I can also report on how much wool can be dyed. My wool is almost ready to be dye and the sun was very warm these last days. Some of the plants are already fermenting, and yes, they stink like … eeeww… The jars with only leaves are not doing so good, I don’t know why… maybe they need some more time to start the fermentation process? Well, we’ll see. Now we need to practice some patience :) I am curious: anyone else tried this method and can share from own experience?
But! Even with all these negative points I decided to give it a go. I decided to experiment more with tree bark and leaves. So I convinced my father in law to go with me foraging in the forest. After a couple of hours walking around we got back with the following: oak bark (Quercus); white alder (Alnus rhombifolia) leaves, roots and twigs; some other type of leaves and twigs that look like a redish alder (no idea what the correct specie is, but they are a lot around here); some wilde liguster (Ligustrum vulgare) dried out twigs; birch bark (Betula papyrifera) from a fallen tree; and a birch fungus (Piptoporus betulinus). After that I added a dried out quince branch (Cydonia oblonga) and some woad leaves (Isatis tinctoria).
So, now I have a lots of containers with different combinations – some only with leaves, some with combination of leaves and twigs, etc etc. I measured the amount of plants in each so I can also report on how much wool can be dyed. My wool is almost ready to be dye and the sun was very warm these last days. Some of the plants are already fermenting, and yes, they stink like … eeeww… The jars with only leaves are not doing so good, I don’t know why… maybe they need some more time to start the fermentation process? Well, we’ll see. Now we need to practice some patience :) I am curious: anyone else tried this method and can share from own experience?