Saturday, February 20, 2010

Eco-Dyeing Success! (Finally)

 

 

 

 


After my smelly black walnut dyeing experience last Fall...

...you may have thought that I'd given up on dyeing with natural substances altogether...

...but you were wrong! :)

I continued to read and marvel at the amazing dyeing experiments going on in blogland...

...and over time, one substance began to 'speak to me'...

...powdered turmeric root!

Some bloggers are not fans of yellow, but yellow (especially this golden shade) is one of my absolute favorites!

I took a silk scarf blank and put marbles, held with clips, intermittently down the length of the scarf.

I mixed some turmeric powder with boiling water and a little white vinegar...

...and let my clipped scarf soak for several hours.

I rinsed and unclipped my scarf and voila...

it's the 70's all over again!! (Tie dye)

I then needle-felted red bits of fiber in the center of the circles...

...and made a thin wool batt to nuno felt to the back of the scarf.

After the obligatory lots of rolling, the scarf was finished.

I'm really happy about the way it ruched up...

...like the skin of a dried apple head doll! :)
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5 comments:

Vicki W said...

I think that color is amazing! I love the texture in the finished scarf too.

Heather Woollove said...

Thanks, Vicki! (Your comment means a lot to me, since you're a 'real' dyer!!) :)

Kim van Waardenburg said...

wouw! Looks great. I never tried dyeing....

Heather said...

Thanks for making contact Heather. The eco-dyeing is great - I love the shade that turmeric gives. There is at least one other Heather floating about in cyberspace - you can't have too many Heathers!!

Anonymous said...

I love it. Yellow is my #2 favorite color, but I never knew you could get such a lovely shade of yellow using tumeric. Isn't learning fun? And best of all, it never ends as long as you keep an open mind. :)