Natural Dye Cold Process
Experiment Reflection:
For my natural dye cold process experiment, I chose red cabbage as my natural dye. The red cabbage was found at the Westside Market and was probably grown in the states. However, whether or not it was grown locally isn’t known. If the red cabbage was grown in New York, then it required a short period of time for transportation, but if it was grown outside of New York, then the transportation would have taken at least a day.
The difference is hardly noticeable, but it seems as the oily wool sample is slightly lighter than the clean wool. In addition, the dyed-rinsed cotton muslin is very light purple, almost white, as it lost most of its color during the rinsing process, while the dyed-not-rinsed cotton muslin is a washed out purple, and the dyed-mordant-rinsed cotton muslins are more vibrant and variety — bluish-purple, pink, green, blue, and light brown. It seems as the wool shows more visible color because it has less density to absorb the dye.
If the natural dyes were used on synthetic fabrics, the dyes would have the same result on the synthetic fabrics as using them on the natural fibers. I am pretty satisfied with the results because I was allowed to produce different vibrant colors using only red cabbage. The colors on the results weren’t impacted solely by the red cabbage, water, and the mordants, because the water could have picked up other things such as the chemicals from the tap water and dust from the air during the process. When I disposed all the water samples at the end of the experiment, the mixture of all the chemicals from the solvents were being poured down the drain which may not be safe. The chemicals that the solvents contain may be potentially harmful to the environment.
I was surprised by how variety of the colors were resulted on the wool and the cotton by using only red cabbage and other few mordants. I will certainly be reusing this method in the future. However, I will have to boil the plant and leave the material inside the solvent longer in order to increase the intensity of the color. Despite the benefits natural dye brings, people prefer synthetic dyes over natural ones because they are faster and more convenient to work with. Also, it takes a lot of the plant material to produce a vibrant color. Natural dyes are safer for the environment because they do not contain harmful chemicals and have minimal impact on the environment.
