#dye process

[weavingforlooms]

Part two of hibiscus dye!!! The jar on the left has some alum (to test out what that does to the fiber/dye) and the jar on the right is just dye, no mordants or fixatives.

I’m doing a method while I cobble together bits of information from different sources. Unfortunately I can’t find any true sources focusing solely on hibiscus dye, and what I can find seems to say that they get incredibly light pink colors (aka barely any pigment) or even blue green ish, rather than my yarn’s vibrant magenta, which has not been my experience at all.

So anyway, I boil my dried flowers in a pot, reduce as much as possible, and then pour the hot dye into the jar with pre-wet yarn (no mordants used). I close the jars tightly so they can boil or steam themselves however it goes, and then I take them outside! I’ve seen this called solar dye, but essentially I put them in a sunny spot and leave them there for 24 hours, overnight and all. Could probably leave them longer but I get impatient and want to see the colors hehehe.

I squeeze out as much liquid as possible, then let them drip dry in my shower with ventilation. Lol, my tub is a little bit pinkish now, I have to say, hibiscus loves to stain. Planning to let them sit for a while before washing them out, maybe with a bit of gentle Soak soap too.

So that’s my process! Apparently hibiscus takes to animal fiber incredibly easily with no mordants needed, which has also been my experience so far too. I did want to experiment a bit with a mordant anyway just to say that I had, and there is a minute difference in the color I can see in the jars, which doesn’t seem to be as deep a color as the non mordant jar. However, it was also from the second dye bath from the same batch of boiled flowers, which could be a weaker dye anyway. This is the alpaca fiber by the way! Excited for some pretty pink alpaca yarn!!!!

[transhuman-priestess]

Why the hell does expired, unexposed Kodachrome of all things command a premium

“Yes please, I want the film you can’t develop properly. Yes I’m just going to do it as black and white. What? Why would I buy expired Tri-x instead?”

[vgilantee]

sitting on the edge of the bath, johnny sat pretty between your legs, while you dye his hair to match yours

[furiouskettle]

.....fallout brainrot has resulted in a new oc.

He’s been interested in fashion since prewar, but never pursued it since it wasn’t particularly Manly. Then the whole Apocalypse thing happened and he had other things to worry about. And then he became a ghoul. And then, a couple decades after, he realised that nobody’s stopping from just.... making clothes.

It’s never too late to follow your dreams!

[fereldanwench]

2065 "Why blue?" "Cliche sad girl shit. Just sorta stuck."

⚠️ do not reupload or edit my shots without my permission ⚠️

[milkweedman]

Finally dyeing this hat. I premordanted a little with copper, and then put it in a dyebath made of coffee ( from a bag I got last year that was just... undrinkably bad) and Ceylon tea leaves (from an old box that I need to use a lot faster than I have been). If the color stays orange I'll add more mordant, I just didn't want to overdo it and I never dye finished objects, so I'm being a little cautious.

[forgingtheblade]

TECHNOBLADE PANTS!

Pattern —built off a standard pants block, based on a palazzo pant pattern

Mockups —After the mockup I added about 4 inches total to the length, which I’m glad I did, because even after that they ended up about the same length as the mockups due to the weight of the fabric & the dyeing process.

Cutting, sewing—I flatfelled all the side seams so they’re super sturdy and can hold up to the wash, which is important because I had to wash them to be able to dye them. I didn’t add the cuffs at the bottom until after dyeing to ensure even dye application

Dyeing—The dyeing process for these was weirdly intense, considering how dull they turned out. Eventually, I plan on scouring them with soda ash and trying again with the mixture I used originally. If that doesn’t work, I’ll use a synthetic dye. They’re linen, dyed in a variety of natural dyes. I used a mordant with tannins in it so I could do an iron post-modification to create that darker color and gradient effect! The dyes themselves were madder, logwood, and cochineal extracts. It’s kind of shocking how orange they turned out, all told.

The sash is just a commercially dyed cotton gauze, I really love the texture of that fabric and I like what it adds to the pallet. I decided to leave the edges raw to complement the kind of rugged look of the base outfit.

AND THATS SOME PANTS! YEAH!

[graveyardmonsterart]

[handweavers]

my mother has asked me to ask “that weaver friend of yours” lol — do you have experience dyeing linen? what does the process look like for natural vs synthetic dyes?

happy to be that weaver friend of yours 🥰❤️ dyeing linen is basically the same as dyeing cotton or any other cellulose fiber, so any synthetic dye that works for cotton will also work for linen. a professional grade fiber reactive dye like procion mx or dharma's procion (here) dyes cellulose fiber without heat, and the process is quick and painless. it just involves a large bucket, water, the dye powder and the cloth you wish to dye. i have little experience with rit dye so i'm not sure if you'd need heat for that, but procion dye is higher quality, comes in a lot more colours than rit, and a 2oz container is like $2 usd and goes a long way

the natural dye process for linen takes a lot longer than the procion dye process and requires several steps. cellulose fibers really don't like to take dyes so you basically have to do a bunch of alchemy to convince it to do what you want (compared to protein fibers like wool and silk which love dyes and only need some gentle nudges)

naturally dyeing linen depends on the dye you'd wish to use, but the process is essentially: scouring, mordanting, and dyeing. it's really important that you scour linen especially because it contains a lot of pectins that prevent dye from penetrating the fiber, so a harsh scouring is best (ie. washing it with hot water and ph neutral soap, even to the point of boiling the cloth. linen can take a lot of heat and is better for it, cotton is more sensitive) you'll probably have to do this before dyeing it with the synthetic dye too for best results

most natural dyes require that you mordant the cloth before dyeing. some dyes don't require a mordant (indigo is the big one, but if you're working with onion skins or other materials that contain tannins this is also true. however mordanting the cloth before dyeing with tannins or even mordanting with tannins is still recommended for better colour performance long-term unless you're working with indigo in which case using a mordant can actually cause problems) but if you're unsure, assume that you need to apply a mordant. you essentially have to simmer the cloth in a hot pot with either a material that contains tannins (tannic acid), a natural bio-accumulator of aluminum (symplocos), or use a metal salt (alum acetate is best for cellulose, but iron and copper salts can also be used. the metal salts route requires more safety precautions esp if you use copper salt, you can't dump that down the drain) your choice of mordant impacts the final colour with different mordants shifting the chemical reaction that happens in the cloth when you dye it

with cotton and linen, after you use the mordant you need to use either a chalk or wheat bran bath to remove excess mordant from the cloth, esp if you use alum acetate, otherwise it can leave a whitish cast over the cloth and also impede dyeing lol. wheat bran baths tend to cause a warmer tone to the final dyed cloth, chalk baths cause a cooler tone. i only use wheat bran baths bc i prefer the warmth and i get the bran cheaply at my local punjabi grocer

only then can you dye the cloth, again unless you're working with a dye like coffee or tea or onion skins OR indigo. linen really doesn't like to take natural dyes unless you do all the above steps, it's stubborn. the dye process itself depends on what dye you use and you can do stuff like solar dyeing if you don't want to simmer it in a pot on a stove. if you plan to go the natural dye route lmk and i can send you some scans of a book i have that contains precise instructions for preparing linen for dyeing

[national-hockey-gay]

anyway just buzzed my hair and dyed it

[kismetconstellations]

i carry your heart with me(i carry it in my heart) x.

[lulu-draws-stuff]

Ok posting my human designs :]

[freaky-flawless]

If you reblog, put in the notes what color you would call it.

[the-dye-stained-socialite]

lineart for a comic I'm working on! this follows the moment whenever elias exchanges their heart for the queen's prize, a replacement heart

lyrics:

Life's full of tough choices, in'it?

Come on you poor unfortunate soul!

Go ahead, make you choice

I'm a very busy woman and I haven't got all day

it won't cost much!

Just your voice!'

[lucksea]

everyone look at how fucking gorgeous i am

[mobydyke]

i shouldn't be at work running a show I should be taking an edible and sitting on my couch and putting all of my emotions in a box