Monday, June 18, 2007

WHEW!!!

I got that commission done by machine quilting thirty minutes at a time three times a day. The binding took 3 movies, one each day for three days. Thank God for ibuprofen!!!
Our youngest daughter graduated from high school on Sunday so now I think I am going to have time to get back to regularly posting my adventures in rust dyeing.
This year I find that I can't wait until fall when the sumac trees are full of tannin to get black dye. So I have been experimenting with different forms of tannin. I am having great success with tea. My formula is one cup loose tea and however much water it takes to fill a one quart measure. The tea swells up quite a bit as you can see in this picture.

After it cools down, I drain it with a colander, squeeze any liquid out of the leaves, put the leaves on the compost pile and put the tea into the spray bottle. Any left over tea is marked "For Dyeing Only" and is kept in the refrigerator. The brand of tea I am using must be available world wide as the label is printed in four languages.

English / Chinese / French / Arabic

2 comments:

Nancilyn (Fiberdabbler) said...

Mmmm, I love jasmine tea. You mention waiting til the tea cools down, how long do you boil/simmer/cook it? Will you be using this tannin as a mordant or as a dyestuff/stain in itself?

Lois Jarvis said...

I just add boiling water and let it cool. I don't have time in my life to let it boil!!! An ancient reciepe for black dye is iron oxide, plus tannin, plus salt. That is what I use tannin for.