When I first started using natural dye material I made all white felt pieces containing other fabrics and fibres and then I dyed the felted textile. I have decided I need to radically change my natural dye process.
My original all in one natural dye process
My all in one process gives a lovely range of connected shades. Everything has been dyed with the same plant material. Lovely but quite limited.
Sadly I have also come to the conclusion that it makes boring pieces. There is not enough light and shade or colour variation to make the pieces exciting. Shame.
My other reason to change
I inadvertently developed two felting methods. One method for pieces that I planned to be naturally dyed and one for pieces made with pre-dyed materials. The felt method I prefer to use is the one I used with the pre-dyed materials. But I really want to make more pieces that use natural dye.
A bit of a dilemma.
My new embryonic natural dye method
I concluded the obvious. Dye fibres, fabrics and yarns myself using natural dyes. Then use them in my preferred felting method. Why did I not think of this before? I will still get all the beautiful shades as long as I continue to use a range of natural fibres.
Crazily I have committed myself to producing a series of pieces with this new natural dye process by the end of March.
Sounds easy!
It’s not difficult but it requires a lot of planning and effort before even starting to felt.
The good news is I have started.
First I sorted out my natural wool fibres and decided, for now, I will use blue faced Leicester and Masham wool fibres. Both locally sourced. I carried out an inventory of my cotton, linen and silk fabrics and threads and just bought a few extra supplies.
The first big step mordanting
This week I started mordanting. I am using Alum as it is a traditional mordant and its manufacture will be the focus of the series of pieces. Before you mordant you need to scour any cotton fabric using washing soda. The wool fibres and silk with Alum will be cold mordanted. The pieces of cotton fabric I am mordanting with aluminium acetate using heat. I choose the cold method for the wool and silk as I don’t want to heat the wool fibres up before I felt them and in the case of the silk keeping it cold will help keep its lustre. If you want to buy mordants try Wild Colours, they have a wonderfully good service
The size of my buckets and pans is my limiting factor. I am constrained to about 2-250 grams of material to be mordanted at one time. this will be a multi-staged process as I need to dye about 1.5 kg of materials.
The mordant process is progressing silently and slowly in my studio. Once mordantated I will dry the materails before the more exciting dyeing process. I will need to have a short pause to let the mordant set for a week or so.
I am pleased to have actually started on the first steps of my plan as I have been thinking about it for a number of months . I am excited to see how my new natural dye process will work out.
