This project consists of creating color dye using any type of flower and trying to naturally dye a fabric. The main aim of this project is to learn an alternative and natural way to color fabrics without harming the environment.

Process:

Flowers used: Sunflowers, the Clematis, and the red Carnesia flower.

Steps:

• Separated the petals from the stems and weigh each of the flowers by separate.
• Place them inside a stainless steel dye pot with 4-5 cups of water 
• Heat the petals in the water for exactly 1 hour.
•  Prepare the fiber. 
• Weigh the dry wool and wash it in warm water with a pH neutral soap.
• Calculate the amount of aluminum by using the mordant ratio (15% of the total weight of the wool)
• The wool weighted 13 grams so we used 1.95 grams of alum.
• Add mordant to a stainless steel pot in warm water. After the aluminum was dissolved we added the wool and heat it for one hour in approx. 80 degrees Fahrenheit.
• Dyeing the fiber and changing the pH: We decided to use cream of tartar as our pH assistant. Cream of tartar turns the water into a more acidic solution.
• Added the mordanted fiber to the pot and heated it for 1 hour.
• After the time had passed we strained the fiber with a colander, washed the wool in warm water without squishing it and finally, we let it dry.

Final Product:

Reflection:

Time management is very important.

Different pH assistants change the color of the fiber.

By washing the wool some of the dye color washed off which made the color less intense.

Temperature of the water had to be modified sometimes so that it wasn’t boiling.