Bundle Dyeing: Backyard Plants

Bundle dyeing: backyard plants

Dye Experiment Materials:

Japanese maple leaves
hydrangea flowers
euonymus leaves
rose of sharon leaves and buds
(pre-washed) silk and wool fabric (1 yard minimum each)
iron liquor
pot (not used for cooking)
sturdy sticks/wooden dowel or pvc pipe (need to be longer than your pot's opening)
mallet
uncolored twine or string
tin foil

*I collected my material in late October so season may affect plants' coloring

Left to right: wool, silk, wool and iron liquor, silk and iron liquor

Fabric preparation:

Silk Habotai

Add 1gal and 2 cups of water to pot.
Mix 2tsp of alum with 1/4 cup of hot water.
Bring pot to boil and add silk fabric.
Simmer pot for one hour.
Leave overnight to cool down. (I left my fabric to soak for 16 hours.)
Rinse fabric under water.

Wool

Add 1/2gal and 2 cups of water to a pot.
Bring pot to boil.
Mix 1.5tsp of alum to 1/4cups of hot water.
Add alum mixture to pot.
Add wool fabric.
Simmer pot for one hour.
Let pot cool down.
Rinse fabric under water.

Bundle process:

Harvest/gather the plants you want (always gather more than you need). (I used these materials the day of harvesting as it's hard to keep such a huge amount of plants alive.)
Lay out fabric on top of tarp or dropcloth.
Place leaves or plants where you want them to make impact.*
Pound plants into fabric.
Fold fabric in half (may have to fold again if the fabric is too long for the stick).
Roll fabric onto stick.
Wrap twine around cloth to secure fabric bundle to stick.
Fill pot halfway with water and bring to boil.
Once water is steaming, place bundles over steaming water.**
Place tin foil over bundles/opening of pot to keep steam in.
Leave bundles over pot for one hour, rotating the bundles every half hour.
Let pot cool down and leave the bundles over the pot.
Leave bundles overnight to absorb color.
Unravel bundles and rinse fabric under warm water to clean the fabric of plant matter. (I recommend getting a giant trashbag to remove the majority of the plant matter from your fabric.)
Leave out to dry.

*For iron liquor version dip plants into solution before placing onto fabric.

**I steamed to bundles at a time but I would recommend steaming one at a time or two that doesn't have the iron liquor because if the bundles touch each other, the iron liquor will affect the bundle not using the iron liquor.

dropcloth results

harvesting results

plant layout on fabric

bundles after being steamed