December 2007
From left to right: weld; strong madder; normal madder; logwood; myrolaban; purple lac; kamala; oak gall; dhak; madder; annatto; cutch; red lac; pomegranate; sanderswood; golden dock; rhubarb root
December 2007
From left to right: weld; strong madder; normal madder; logwood; myrolaban; purple lac; kamala; oak gall; dhak; madder; annatto; cutch; red lac; pomegranate; sanderswood; golden dock; rhubarb root |
December 1st I have started a series of experiments using dye extracts. This is to give me a library of colour swatches and to build up a greater knowledge of each dye and extract. I haven't had time to do this important basic leg-work before now. The strip at the top of the page shows the 17 extracts I have, painted out. Currently I have two brands of dye extract: Couleurs de Plantes and Pure Tinctoria. From a separate source I also have some cochineal, as previous work with the dye extracts was not giving me a good pink. I have not bought indigo from these companies as I already have a stock in the studio. It's synthetic - I am not yet attempting a fermentation vat. My intention is to make a strong stock solution of each extract and paint it out on two silk bases. These will be mordanted with alum-only on one, and alum and cream of tartar on the other. I want to see if it makes any difference. I then intend to cut the painted silk and retain one strip unsteamed. I'll steam the remainder and do light tests on selected strips as well as various wash tests.
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A detail from one painted silk base. Some of the extracts do not dissolve well, leaving a gritty residue on the surface |
Selection of dyes painted onto an indigo-dyed base. I also need to do the reverse, ie dye indigo on top of a set of dyed strips |
Palette of overpainted dye extracts. Cern'o resist (see below) was used to divide up the silk |
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While on a recent trip to Lyon, I visited the shop from where my Kniazeff silk dyes originate. While I was there, they explained to me that they will not be stocking spirit-based gutta any longer. Health and Safety law has become too expensive to implement as it affects manufacture, transport and storage as well as subsequent safe usage. Their water-based replacement product works in a similar way to Resistad and has to have heat applied before dye is applied. In the case of Cern'o, a hairdryer is advised. With Resistad, an iron is recommended. On the left is my first use of Cern'o. It is diluted with water. As with Resistad, it's important to dilute the correct amount. With too little water the mixture is thick and the applicator has to be squeezed uncomfortably hard. Too much water and the mixture begins to spread once it reaches the silk. All the resist used with my dye extracts (in images above) is Cern'o. So far, so good. I need to steam it now, and see how it performs, and then see how well it washes out. |
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December 8th Having done the first set of experiments with dye extracts, mixing, intermixing and using modifiers, I have started to work with dyes and extracts one at a time beginning with cochineal. I used an alum mordant, divided up the silk (with Cern'o resist) then painted columns of dyes in increasing concentration and modified them with iron, alkali and acid.
Despite all efforts at modifying and overdyeing, I am not getting a good bright red with this first experimental sampler. There are some beautiful roses, rusts, greys, purples and rich browns. For the red I may need to make some more precisely measured concentrations with annatto over cochineal, or vice versa. Instructions from several books advise using tin mordant to create red with cochineal but I am reluctant to use anything else but alum. One of the problems with the extracts is that although they are more consistent and predictable than using dyestuffs from scratch, each extract batch can be different from the last and so total mathematical precision isn't really possible.
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Completed cochineal sampler with some wax resist work and various overdyes of sanderswood, dhak, annatto, weld etc plus variations created with modifiers.
In the lower left-hand striped column of the sample above I overpainted stripes with red clay extract taken from a local source. Some of the samples I collected in September are shown again below. The sample I used is the red one below left.
I wanted to see if there was enough iron in it to create a modified colour on cochineal. You can't see the result properly on the cochineal sample at the top of this column but there was definitely a colour change from pink to purple-grey, which is what one might expect from iron.
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December 9th - 21st A couple of weeks ago I was invited to look at a set of letters, papers and documents belonging to a friend, whose family has historical connections with the dyeing industry in England. At first I didn't take in the immensity of the information contained in the papers and samples, partly because my own knowledge of dyes and related industry in the mid eighteenth to nineteenth centuries isn't too impressive. But as I have read more and more of the unsorted and scattered letters, notebooks and papers I realise I have been given access to an important and unique archive with strong connections to key events, scientists and major dye discoveries and inventions. So I have been going through the papers trying to sort them into some sense of order and eventually, with the permission of the owner, may publish some of the things I've learned here. It's also the intention that the archive should find a secure home where it may be of value to rather more qualified researchers than me. I was fascinated to find a sample of orcin, opposite, in the collection. |
Orcin crystals obtained from orchil-producing lichen. For a description of the process involved I suggest this link |
