Dyeing stuff...

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mochyn

Joined: 21 Dec 2004
Posts: 24585
Location: mid-Wales

Posted: Mon Sep 08, 08 11:04 am Post subject: Dyeing stuff...
I'm hooked. Sally: Helen: Penny: where's the best place (on-line) to get mordants and things?

sally_in_wales
Downsizer Moderator

Joined: 06 Mar 2005
Posts: 20809
Location: sunny wales

Posted: Mon Sep 08, 08 11:09 am Post subject:

somewhere like fibrecrafts will do everything under one roof, but its worth shopping round a bit as prices can vary a lot online, mordants go a long way though, things like alum are worth buying in relatively large amounts but you don't need much copper and iron, you can actually get away without buying those at all if you pop some rusty iron onto one jamjar, copper scraps into another and top up with strong vinegar and leave for a week or so -a splash of that will do pretty much as well as the granular versions

mochyn

Joined: 21 Dec 2004
Posts: 24585
Location: mid-Wales

Posted: Mon Sep 08, 08 11:12 am Post subject:

sally_in_wales wrote:

...you can actually get away without buying those at all if you pop some rusty iron onto one jamjar, copper scraps into another and top up with strong vinegar and leave for a week or so -a splash of that will do pretty much as well as the granular versions

I like that plan. I'd heard of the copper coin trick but hadn't thought of it for iron.

Am I imagining it or have I heard of Cream of tartar and borax as mordants?

sally_in_wales
Downsizer Moderator

Joined: 06 Mar 2005
Posts: 20809
Location: sunny wales

Posted: Mon Sep 08, 08 11:13 am Post subject:
cream of tartar is an 'assistant' to mordanting rathar than a mordant in its own right, lots of people like to use it with alum, I rarely bother tbh

mochyn

Joined: 21 Dec 2004
Posts: 24585
Location: mid-Wales

Posted: Mon Sep 08, 08 11:15 am Post subject:

sally_in_wales wrote:

cream of tartar is an 'assistant' to mordanting rathar than a mordant in its own right, lots of people like to use it with alum, I rarely bother tbh

I knew I'd heard something about it.

Nice to know I wasn't dreaming about dyeing.

wellington womble

Joined: 08 Nov 2004
Posts: 15051
Location: East Midlands

Posted: Mon Sep 08, 08 11:43 am Post subject:
Is there a good recipe book somewhere? I know Charlotte had a couple, but I never got round to looking at them.

VM

Joined: 23 Nov 2007
Posts: 1748
Location: Lincolnshire

Posted: Mon Sep 08, 08 2:43 pm Post subject:
I've recently bought a nice basic book called (I think) The Craft of Natural Dyeing by Jenny Dean. Haven't actually done dyeing yet, but it's easy to read and has nice pics of different colours and how they were produced. Same author also more recently has written one called Wild Colour, which looked nice - but is more expensive so I didn't get it.

mochyn

Joined: 21 Dec 2004
Posts: 24585
Location: mid-Wales

Posted: Mon Sep 08, 08 2:46 pm Post subject:
One of Charlotte's was: Natural Dyes by Gwen Fereday (pub. British Museum, London, ISBN 0714125652) It's the one she said was very technical but accurate. I'm off to have a look for it...

wellington womble

Joined: 08 Nov 2004
Posts: 15051
Location: East Midlands

Posted: Mon Sep 08, 08 7:17 pm Post subject:
You took the ISBN? I'm impressed - the most I ever remember to do is take photos, because I can never find a pen!

hedgewitch

Joined: 26 Nov 2005
Posts: 5834
Location: Daft wench GHQ

Posted: Mon Sep 08, 08 7:29 pm Post subject:

wellington womble wrote:

You took the ISBN? I'm impressed - the most I ever remember to do is take photos, because I can never find a pen!

I am disappointing in you, WW!

Did you finish that cardigan this weekend?

Cathryn

Joined: 16 Jul 2005
Posts: 19856
Location: Ceredigion

Posted: Mon Sep 08, 08 7:36 pm Post subject:
There's this... https://www.downsizer.net/Projects/A_sustainable_home/Dyeing_-_the_basics/

wellington womble

Joined: 08 Nov 2004
Posts: 15051
Location: East Midlands

Posted: Mon Sep 08, 08 7:43 pm Post subject:

hedgewitch wrote:

wellington womble wrote:

You took the ISBN? I'm impressed - the most I ever remember to do is take photos, because I can never find a pen!

I am disappointing in you, WW!

Did you finish that cardigan this weekend?

mochyn

Joined: 21 Dec 2004
Posts: 24585
Location: mid-Wales

Posted: Tue Sep 09, 08 9:37 am Post subject:

wellington womble wrote:

You took the ISBN? I'm impressed - the most I ever remember to do is take photos, because I can never find a pen!

I used to work in a book department and got so sick of "I want a book. It's blue and about this big."

hedgewitch

Joined: 26 Nov 2005
Posts: 5834
Location: Daft wench GHQ

Posted: Tue Sep 09, 08 9:50 am Post subject:

mochyn wrote:

wellington womble wrote:

You took the ISBN? I'm impressed - the most I ever remember to do is take photos, because I can never find a pen!

I used to work in a book department and got so sick of "I want a book. It's blue and about this big."

sean
Downsizer Moderator

Joined: 28 Oct 2004
Posts: 42207
Location: North Devon

Posted: Tue Sep 09, 08 9:53 am Post subject:
A member of staff in Blackwells once found me a surgery textbook based on not much more description than that. When I said how impressed I was he said "So am I, I work in the geography department."

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