Dye of newt and toe of frog

[m o l l y]

I want to dye stuff with my kitchen goods. I dyed a duvet cover with avocado and it turned the perfect soothing sleepy-time pinkish color. Has anyone had great success with turmeric? I have white stuff I wanna make yellow.

Any other kitchen or garden or nature dye delights you've loved?

[yourfriendclaire]

Our friend Jac did a turmeric dying session not long ago and she produced some incredible color! Just powdered turmeric, not even the raw thing.

One thing I’d advise AGAINST is red cabbage! In my experience (two days of natural dye mania in week 3 of quarantine) it produces incredibly rich purple in the dye pot but as soon as you take the garment out for a rinse, it just doesn’t stick and you end up with an ashy grey.

[m o l l y]

Hot tip re cabbage. Kraut only, got it.

Any details on that turmeric? Mordant? Temp? Time? Where's Jac? I need her!

[yourfriendclaire]

I know, I invited her!

[RCH]

I get a little risqué with a turmeric face or hair mask and you can't stop the stuff from turning everything it looks at bright gold.

[yourfriendclaire]

My other tip is just go on a walk and pick stuff that seems like it might be interesting. I gathered some random castoff eucalyptus bark on the side of a road and it made a lovely deep brown dye

[m o l l y]

So you just pop it in a pop and click boil?

[yourfriendclaire]

Pop in a pop and click!

Boil whatever plant matter in water until it turns whatever color it’s gonna turn (couple hours) then drain out the plant matter and that’s your dye pot. You can add alum salts as a mordant

[meadows]

I heard that marigold makes a strong yellow dye!

[m o l l y]

Been doing some internet research.

[yourfriendclaire]

Would wear

[infopetal]

beets? onion skins?

not a kitchen product, but I will say indigo dyeing is quite fun albeit supply intensive. my mom is into it, and we did a little workshop at my parents' house over thanksgiving:

2019-11-30 12.46.17.jpg (4.72 MiB) Viewed 1019 times

[m o l l y]

Look at that indigo hanging amidst the fall leaves! Indigo has been on to do list forever. I think being in an apartment and not having a yard to do it in keeps making me put it off. Fear basically. Indigo and skiing.

In other news, my turmeric tie-dye looked great! But them I washed it and now it is very meh. Will do a redye a couple shirts to solid yellow.

[yourfriendclaire]

I think the thing with mordant and natural dyeing is real. I bought a pack of “alum salts” on Amazon (I know!!! My last-ever Amazon purchase) and it made a big difference in getting natural dye to stick. They say you have to soak the garment in the mordant water first but I just dumped a few teaspoons in with the dye baths.

[m o l l y]

NOW you tell me??!

[yourfriendclaire]

I said you can add mordant!! I think it’s different for different plant materials too. Figured turmeric would be fine!

[m o l l y]

Hahaha. No, the internet told me I'd be fine. You are not to blame for my pile of yellowy shirts. I used up what was left of my spice, which was clearly not enough. It was also probably on the old side... I will re-dye and it will be grand!

[meadows]

I just googled home bleaching jeans and this horror appeared in the sidebar:

[meadows]

it upset me and I closed the search tab

does anyone dare.... janties??

[m o l l y]

$320???!?