Horse Hair

Horse hair can be woven with out being spun first, the fibers are very long and strong and, and can stand the pulling and tugging of the loom with out breakage. This is because of its high protein make up. The hair does not absorb water very well, however it can be felted with a lot of work and hot soap water. 

Horse hair has many different uses like being make into rope, fishing line, milk sieves, horse reins, horse rugs, bushes, and jewelry. 

All horse colors begin with a genetic base of red or black with the addition of allies for variation  in color tone spotting, stripping, deletion of color, or other affects of aging.

 

Coat color alleles affect melanin, the pigment or coloring of the coat. There are two different distinct types of melanin: phaeomelanin, which is seen as red to yellow color, and eumelanin, is seen as brown to black. All coloration genes in mammals affect either the production or distribution of these two chemicals phaeomelanin and eumelanin . Allele affecting pigment cells do not change the pigment chemicals themselves but rather by acting on the placement of pigment cells produce distinct patterns of unpigmented pink skin and with the reaction of white hair.

Genes appear in groups of two, with each single gene "option" being called an allele. The terms Alleles and Modifiers are used to describe the same concept. An allele identified with a capital letter is a dominant gene, one identified with a lower-case letter is a recessive gene. Because sex cells (sperm and ova) contain only half the usual number of chromosomes, each parent sends one allele in each gene combination to the ensuing offspring. When an individuals gene set contains identical copies of the same allele, it is named homozygous for that gene. When it has two opposite (different) alleles, it is heterozygous. For arecessive gene to be shown, it must be homozygous, but a dominant gene will be shown whether it is heterozygous or homozygous. A horse homozygous for a certain allele will always give it to its offspring, while a horse that is heterozygous holds two different alleles and can give either one.

For my tea dye I decided to try passion tea, which is a pick herbal tea. I soaked my pre mordant fabric in a bath of hot water and 5 tea bags  for 24 hours. 

I still was searching for an Orange so i decide to try tiger lilies. I pored boiling water over the flower petals and let my pre mordant fabric soak over night. I came out green I was very surprised!

I still was tyring to get an orange tone so i decide to mix a red (beets) and a yellow (onion skins). I also wanted to see what the beets would do so i dived my beet bath as well. I blended the beets with hot water, and then poured boiling water over the paste. I poured boiling water over the onion skins as well. Then I let my pre mordant swatches sit over night in each bath. I got very close to an orange that time.

I was having trouble getting the color orange from natural items, so my teacher suggested I try Annatto. It is a spice that is grown in very warm regions. I found it being sold at Mexican grocery store. The package was 15 oz., so for ever ounce i added a cup of water. Then I divided the bath up into 6 equal parts, adding a different mordant to each. Like the black pepper, annatto was not going to respond to Aluminum and Iron mordants but I still tried them. But it was great to see the rejection of the mordant in the bath, the copper was sitting on top of the bath, it is green. The 6 baths included Aluminum, Copper, Iron, Vinegar, Salt, and Annatto solo. I left them to sit over night. All 6 samples turned out a yellow color, and i was not able to get orange at this time. 

I wanted to make a something for my friend Sarah who recently got married out of the bouquet that we he bridesmaids held during the ceremony. She choose a purple calalilly. So cut the stems from the flowers and created two dye bathes by pouring boiling water over both the steams and the flowers. I didn't get as strong of a color as i would have hoped but it is still a very nice color. I let my pre mordant fabric stand in the dye for 24 hours. 

I saw some whole black pepper at the store when i was at the store so i thought I would try it out. After looking at the molecular structure of black pepper i knew that an Aluminum or iron mordant would not work, but i still tried it, and i decide to try salt and vinegar bath as well. Still the beautiful brown tones of the dye bath really never cam through... oh well. 

I created the red onion skin dye bath by pouring boiling water over the onion skins and letting it steep. 3 pre mordant swatches were soaked in cold water for 15 min before being placed in the dye bath. This helps the dye disperse on the swatch more evenly. Without being soaked the fabric can have a blotchy and uneven appearance. I took out my three swatches, and put in three more and pre mordant swatches (Aluminum, Copper, Iron) and left them in the bath for 72 hours. 

Yesterday we died with red cabbage as a group project, and it smelled awful! We each picked a mordant to mix with our boiled cabbage to produce a dye bath. I picked aluminum and Baking soda to make 2 separate dyes. Everyone else did the same with copper, iron, nickle, cabbage solo, cream of tarter, and I am for getting one... We got every pastel color in the rainbow, but the colors were not very brilliant. So we left samples in each dye over night to see if we could get stronger color. But from what I hear, cabbage is a very unstable dye and wont much color, or keep it on the fiber for very long. 

Carmine

Carmine or cochineal bugs produce a deep and vibrant, shades of red. Currently Peru is the leading provider in harvesting these bugs. They prefer a warm claimant like Peru or Mexico and usually nest on cactus. The red is found not just in Natural dyed fibers, but also in red food dye, such as cake icings or drinks, and it can also be found in red lipsticks.

The color that Carmine can produce can vary from a number of different ways the dye is prepared. One way to create a more intense red is to add cream of tater sauce. Carmine reacts to the tarter sauce's acid by producing a brilliant red.

Today created 4 dye bathes out of onion skins, red clover, blueberries, and strawberries. To prepare the bath for the onion skins and clover I poured boiling water, and let them steep for an hour. The blueberries and strawberries were crushed and then mixed with warm water, and gradually brought to a simmer. I pre-mordant my swatches yesterday, but I bought some new fabric so i deiced to pre-mordant swatches for that as well, in the iron, copper, and aluminum, to see if there was any difference from silk to silk. The silk I had been dyeing with yesterday was very light weight, the silk I brought today was heavy and textured. I made 24 swatches by the end of the day, and left another 24 swatches to sit in the 4 bathes over night.

I prepared 6 dye baths last Friday which consisted of materials that I found in my neighborhood. Maple, Elm, Burch and oak bark,  Willow leaves and twigs, and a number of different purple flowers that I combined into one bath.  The bark I am letting sit in cold water for a week before dyeing any fibers. The Willow leaves and twigs as well as the flowers I poured boiling water over and let steep for the weekend and then came back to it on  Monday.

Today (Monday) I pre-mordant my silk swatches in iron, copper, and aluminum before placing in the dye bath. While the swatches were in the mordant I prepared the dye bath by first straining out the leaves, twigs, and petals. I decided to make a 3rd dye bath from the extra maple and elm bark I had collected and brought that to a light simmer, the flowers dye was also brought to a light simmer, while the willow was left cold. I collected 12 samples in colors ranging from golden champagne to a smoky dark grey. 

Oak Bark

Oak Bark

Oak Bark contains very high tanning levels which makes it perfect for tanning animal skins and dying cellulose fibers.

North American Oak Bark gives a yellow color to the dye bath, while Mediterranean oak bark can give off shades of red.

Black oak bark was first introduced to England from Wilmington Delaware. 

When Black Oak Bark is allowed to sit and soak for two years it can be used as a mordant.

http://www.nativetech.org/quill/dyes.html

http://www.renaissancedyeing.com/store_dye-extracts_oak/

 

Indigo 6/18/09

Indigo Lab 6/18/09

Ingredients for Indigo

1tsp Indigo

2tsp Thoreau Dioxide

1cup Ammonia

After gently mixing together ingredients as to not introduce to much oxygen, we damped our sample cotton swatches and then dipped in the indigo. Then we let stand for class tomorrow.

 

Mediterranean Sea Holly - Spain

Star of Persia - Turkestan 

Meadow Sage - World Wide

Burnet - Native

Ornamental Onion - Asia Minor

 

I didn't find too much about these plants and natural dye, I mostly came across Easter Egg natural dye recipes, when I typed in Star of Persia, Meadow Sage, and Ornamental Onion. But I think those recipes were referring to Persian rug dying techniques, onion skins, and looking to meadows for wild flowers. 

Selective Dying

Last semester in Marianne Fairbanks's Evolutionary Fibers course we did a number of different techniques to design and/or enhance our natural dye samples. We were working with natural dyes but already in powder form that was purchased from a company that is slips my mind at the moment. Some of the techniques we used were tying and bunching the fabric to a bottle, tying, gathering and stitching the fabric together very tightly. We also used bee's wax to shield part of the fabric from the dye, while exposing others. You can scratch away the wax, partially dip it, crinkle or fold it. I have some photos of that process I can post. I can also see if I can figure out how to post some of her hand outs on the portal so you all can get a better idea on how each technique works.