Eco Dyeing with Pyracantha ‘Orange Glow’ Berries Part III

 Eco Dyeing with Pyracantha ‘Orange Glow’ Berries Part I 

Part I - is my first Berry experiment

http://materialisticvisions.blogspot.com/2014/10/autumn.html 

Eco Dyeing with Pyracantha ‘Orange Glow’ Leaves Part II 

Part II is experimenting with the leaves

 http
://materialisticvisions.blogspot.com/2014/11/eco-dyeing-with-pyracantha-orange-glow.html

This is Part III

Eco Dyeing with Pyracantha ‘Orange Glow’ Berries Part III


I am experimenting with the Berries

again.

I have to hurry and collect all of the

berries that I possibly can with the

cold weather approaching they are being

to shrivel. 

I put the berries in the stainless

steel pot and covered with my tap

water (which is hard). I added one

teaspoon of alum and let it simmer

not boil for one hour then let it

sit.

I forgot to take photos! ugh

I used 100% cotton fabric - one half

yard (no weighing) boiled it and added 

1 teas. washing soda and 1 teas. alum.

But here's the color in the jar...

Looks like a light orange. I let it

sit in the jar for about 5 days -

continually stirring it around.

Trying not to get too excited with

the lovely color because we know

by now - what you see is NOT what

you get!

I took the fabric out and rinsed it

in luke warm water and not surprising

the color came out and I would say 

it's a light beige. booo

So now I get this brainstorm! What if...

I put the liquid left from the leaves

and the liquid left from the berries

and see what happens.

I took one cup of the leaves liquid

 and added one cup of the berry liquid.

The cotton fabric boiled in soda ash

and alum, rinsed and put in the jar 

with the berry/leaves liquid mix.

 Fabric soaked for about

3 days. Dried the fabric and rinsed

and dried again.

This is the result

 It does have a hint of color.

(what's remaining in the jar is 

another experiment with white cotton 

DMC thread)

 You can see a hint of orange.

Here's the two results together

I'm beginning to wonder what the 

results would have been if I omitted

the soda ash in the fabric. 

I do have some berries left and

am thinking of trying something

different.

Stay tuned!