Tuesday, February 16, 2010

Spanish Dyes







I am pleased with today's purple, gold and brown dye result from using spanish onion skins. Once again the sharpest result is on the silk charmeuse. I noticed that if I manipulate the folds as I roll up the silk, it creates additional pattern by leaving areas devoid of colour. The heavier silk in the second photo shows the front and back, followed by a close up of the front - less distinct markings but soft, more subtle colour. And I'm continuing to stitch ...



4 comments:

Laura said...

Yvonne
Thanks for sharing.
Did you choose silk because you wanted to work with it, or is it more suitable for taking the dye from natural sources?
How long do you have to steam it to get the colour released?
Looks like so much fun.

Pam de Groot said...

Ahh some great results. Keep exploring it is so much fun!

Yvonne said...

Thanks, it is thrilling to experiment and to open the bundles! Laura, I picked silk because it's supposed to be easier to natural dye protein fibers then cellulose fibers - and I'm a beginner. I had read about using onion skins to colour cloth taking a month or so, but then I wondered what if I steamed them? It's probably done all the time, I just don't know about it or haven't gotten to that part yet in the Eco Colour book. So I had them steam for an hour and it worked.

Red (aka Puddleduck!) said...

I haven't tried Spanish Onion skin to dye with yet... only brown onions. Looking at your examples though I'm inspired to give them a go... Looks like I'll be buying purple onions this week!