Purchasing
- The first part of this process was to purchase the products that would be used to dye the material. I bought Mum Buddy which was a purple flower, chrysanthemum, a more yellow tinted flower, and Concorde grapes. For a small tub of grapes, they cost around $7. Each bouquet of flower cost around $20 each.
Cleaning and Mordanting
- Started dying process the day after the materials were bought.
- First boiled the cloth material in 4-5 cups of water with Tide for an hour. 4th Heat setting out of 9
- Began making mordant: 5 cups of water, 2 tsp of Alum Powder, 2 tsp of Soda Ash, 1 ½ tsp or Tartanic, ½ tsp of soda
- Boiled material in mordant for 45 minutes and let cool for 20 minutes
Dying1
- Split the material in half and started with the purple dye
- Placed 60 stalks of purple flowers in pot with 4-5 cups of water and boiled for about 30 minutes
- Added 2 tsp of salt for more vivid color
- Cooked material in dye solution for about 1 hour
- Poured in plastic container to ferment over night
Dying2
- Placed 9 buds and 13 Flowers’ petals in pot and boiled for 30 mins.
- Added 2 tsp of salt for more vivid color
- Cooked for 1 hour
- Poured dying solution and material into container overnight
- Yellow came out vivid color the next day, so fabric was rinsed and left out to dry over night
- Purple did not dye as properly, so decided to red dye with grapes
Dying3
- Used 161 grape peels to repeat dying process and fermentation
- Added 2 tsp of salt for more vivid color
- This material dyed a lot better.
Clean up
- Kept plastic tubs to store the fabrics, pot will be kept although not used again to cook anything.
- Dye was accidentally dumped down drain instead of kept as a more eco friendly solution for disposal
More on my reflection of the assignment here
