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Acorn dye

Dye Experiment Materials: 

  • 425 grams of pin oak acorns (whole or broken)

  • (pre-washed) cotton voile and broadcloth, silk habotai, and linen fabric (I got my fabric from Dharma Trading.)

  • alum

  • pot (not used for cooking)

  • strainer

acorn silk hobotai.jpg
acorn linen.jpg
acorn cotton broadcloth.jpg
acorn cotton voile.jpg

Clockwise starting from top left: silk habotai, linen, cotton broadcloth, cotton voile

Fabric Preparation​

  1. Cut fabric into numerous 6x6" squares. 

  2. Pour 3qt of water into a pot bring it to a boil.

  3. Mix 1.5 tsp of of alum with 3/4 cup of hot water.

  4. Add alum mixture to boiling pot.

  5. Add fabric to pot and let it simmer for one hour.

  6. Let fabric in pot cool down.

  7. Once the pot is cooled down, take fabric out and rinse it under water.

Dye bath

  1. Measure out 425g of acorn matter.

  2. Fill pot with water halfway or so all the acorns are covered by water. 

  3. Bring pot to a boil and let dye bath simmer for two hours.

  4. After two hours, strain the dye bath and discard the acorn matter.

  5. Bring pot to a boil and add fabric. 

  6. Let fabric in pot simmer for 45 minutes.

  7. After simmering, turn off heat and let fabric sit in pot overnight and cool down. (I left my fabric in for an additional 17 hours.)

  8. Rinse fabric under warm water until the water runs clear and the fabric is clean of any acorn matter that wasn't strained out of the dye bath.

© 2020 by Alyssa Domenico

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