Picnic and Hands-On Natural Dyeing –
August 23, 2009
Emily Faulkner hosted an all-day potluck picnic and taught Guild members how to prepare indigo dye vats from her homegrown Japanese indigo plants and from wild tansy. Guild members brought skeined yarn or unspun fiber to dye as well as food and beverages to share durtng a potluck lunch.
Sharon Gunter provided this photo chronicle of the event:
Left: After tansy blossoms had simmered and given up their beautiful gold color to the dye liquor, they were strained out of the liquid before adding yarn to the pot.
Below: Mary Catherine also removed the leaves of indigo after they were simmered to release their color into the dye liquid. Sherry, right, looks on and Emily, left, explains the next steps before yarn is immersed for dyeing.
Right: The indigo liquor goes through a lengthy process of heating, pouring, reducing its oxygen content, and adjusting its PH before it's ready to give up its beuatiful blue color to yarn or fabric.
Below: After the oxygen has been removed, the dye liquid is greenish yellow! Now yarn is placed into the pot.
The pots indigo and tansy dye must be carefully tended to keep their temperatures optimum for the immersed fiber to take up the dyes. Below: Sherry and Mary Catherine keep a close watch.
Color!
Right: Chris checks the dye intensity of her tansy-dyed wool yarn.
Below: Kristie carefully removes a skein of yarn from the indigo vat, watching it turn from green to blue as it reacts with the oxygen in the air.
Below: While the vats of dye simmer, Gayle and Elaine just sit back and enjoy a beautiful summer day and the lovely scenery at Emily's farm.
