January 2008

January 15th

Very much time for an update. Work has continued in a number of directions, although not in blog writing. I have managed to steam the natural dye extract samples painted out last month (see strip above). Bad weather has kept me from doing this until now as I steam in the garage, which means leaving the door open. If it's cold or windy, I tend not to steam. And it's been cold, cold and windy, or windy.

To summarise: the two silks painted with individual extracts have now been split into several sections. One section has not been steamed at all. The remainder has been steamed; one part not washed, and the remainder washed. One strip of the washed silk has been wrapped in the dark, and a further strip is now hanging in a window as a light test.

There are two separate test silks. One was mordanted with alum only. The other was mordanted with alum and cream of tartar.

This set of samples should eventually indicate whether there is any difference as a result of mordanting and the relative light fastness of each extract.

I'll compare the control and test strips after one, two and three months.

Above: samples which will be kept wrapped as control

One of two light-strips hung in a window

Cern'O

If you check last month you will see that I recently bought a new product called Cern'O from Ateliers Créatifs in France. I have now given it a good testing on two scarves (below and right).

I have been waiting until they were steamed before any pronouncement, as with Resistad, another similar product, I had some problems with the steaming stage. These were solved, but I wasn't sure if I'd have the same issues with Cern'O. More to follow.