Organic tie-dye

Scott Adams wrote:

Hi all,

Any suggestions/recommendations for tie-dyeing with beet juice? I read
somewhere that I should use store-bought canned beet juice for dyeing. What
about using the juice from fresh-cooked beets-would cooking them in a
pressure cooker help concentrate the color?

Do I need to soda ash to prep the fabric? It sounds caustic.... how
should I prepare cotton for tie-dyeing, and should I do something to set the
color after?

I've also read about using turmeric or blackberries...Any ideas on other
natural ingredients to achieve the rest of the rainbow?

Onion skin, red cabbage.

Saffron threads work well when dying. I suggest this site
as a jump off point for your investigations.

http://www.bivens.ca/koolaid.htm

Good luck,
Mutti

For a gratifying first experience, dye wool. You can boil
wool with almost any plant and get a fast, attractive color
-- usually brown, sometimes yellow. With cotton and linen,
you have to have some idea as to what you are doing.

Put wool and dyestuff in cold water, bring it to the boiling
point slowly, and allow it to cool in the bath.

If you aren't sure the bath is acid, add a glug of white
vinegar.

Any ideas on other
natural ingredients to achieve the rest of the rainbow?

Rhubarb leaves give a golden-brown color. They are high in
oxalic acid and serve as their own mordant.

Catnip dyes yellow. You can use the plant parts that the
cat rejects.

Tansy leaves dye a very pale green.

There are plants that dye red and blue, but these are in the
"you have to know something" class. I hear that cochineal
insects are easy to get red out of, but very expensive.

Joy Beeson, wearing *very loud* striped-brown socks.
--
http://home.earthlink.net/~joybeeson/ -- needlework
http://home.earthlink.net/~beeson_n3f/ -- Writers' Exchange
joy beeson at earthlink dot net

Organic tie-dye

(Mutti=A0Pie)
Cea,
snip
I use about 10 threads steeped for 1 hour with
...and I take it into the shower with me to rinse \\after pouring some
of my Kosher dill over it to set the color (I put up my own// while I
wash me (conserve water don't you know).
Colors vary and it usually needs to shower with someone twice. I usually
do cotton or cotton rayon mixes only as I don't have any desire for
felted wool.
snip
---
Thanks, Mutti. Boy, this description conjures up a visual image of you
sans clothing, bathing in pickle juice, through the whole process.
Cea

Yes! Ain't Life grand!

Mutti


---
Thanks, Mutti. Boy, this description conjures up a visual image of you
sans clothing, bathing in pickle juice, through the whole process.
Cea