Wednesday, 25 August 2010

Dyeing with Dahlias.

Fleece dyed with Dahlia flowers.



I am going to needle felt this fleece to make some small hearts.  The fleece was placed in a bowl of cold water with alum as a mordant.  I then put in some faded dahlia flowers and left the bowl for a couple of days in the greenhouse.  The sunshine and warmth did its job and this is the resulting colour.  By not boiling up a pot on the stove I have saved fuel and still obtained a result.
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2 comments:

  1. Rachel Powell26 August 2010 at 12:26

    Hi Jeanie,

    It's lovely to see that you could get a colour using that method!!! As I use mine for garments I tend to use an oven to heat the dye rather than a stove to ensure the colour takes well as they will get a lot of washing.

    I had great fun with dahlia's last year from my dye garden... they eventually went into a bright orange on wool.

    I've just been doing some experiments with more plants today so will post those soon.

    Rachel

    x

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  2. Jeannie Bell2 September 2010 at 17:06

    Wow - orange would be fantastic to have as a dye colour. My neighbour grows the dahlias and lets me help myself to bunches. Will try heating them up in a small pot on the stove and see what happens.

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