DYES – All Fiber Arts

Raanu

A Raanu rug was traditionally a flat weave weft faced handwoven wall hanging that was sometimes also used as a bed covering. The warp is made of cotton rug yarn or sometimes linen yarn, and the weft is woven of multicoloured fine wool yarns, often a single ply. The weave structure is a repp weave … Continue reading “Raanu”

International Fungi and Fibre Symposium 2010 Felted Hats

A workshop in how to make a felted hat – held at the 2010 International Fungi and Fiber Symposium in Gysinge, Sweden

Naalbinding

The art of naalbinding or needle knitting

Natural Dyes – Black Bean Dye Recipe

I had heard that it was possible to dye yarns using black beans but have never tried it before so last week when I went grocery shopping I looked for some. I purchased a 500 gram bag of Turtle Black Beans from my local Waitrose grocery store. I placed all of the beans into a … Continue reading “Natural Dyes – Black Bean Dye Recipe”

Indigo Fructose Dye Vat

There are many ways to prepare an indigo vat, some use soda ash and spectralite, some use some use sulphuric acid, some use iron and some urine. For this indigo vat, I am using a fructose base. You can also use ageing fruit instead of fructose sugar. The fructose indigo vat was developed by Michel … Continue reading “Indigo Fructose Dye Vat”

How to Scour and Mordant Cotton and Linen

The secret to successful natural dyeing of cellulose fibres, yarns and fabrics such as cotton and linen is thorough scouring. The scouring process removes natural oils, waxes and pectins from the fibre so that the dyes can penetrate the fibre more readily. Scouring and mordanting cellulose fibres is a more time consuming process than when … Continue reading “How to Scour and Mordant Cotton and Linen”

Madder Root Dye

Madder Root Dye Recipe for Linen, Cotton and Cellulose Fibres All cellulose fibres, yarns and fabrics must be scoured prior to mordanting or dyeing. Please see my previous article on how to do this. How to Scour Linen For these samples, I used several different linen and cotton fabrics as well as wool yarn. Unbleached … Continue reading “Madder Root Dye”

Brazilwood Dye

Brazilwood Dye Recipe for Linen, Cotton and Cellulose Fibres Caesalpinia Sappan for 100 grams of fibre 20 grams Brazilwood powder – Caesalpinia Sappan Put Brazilwood dye powder into dye pot. Let simmer in dyepot for +1 hour at 50 deg. Add pre-mordanted wool yarn and sample fabrics. Let simmer in dyepot for +1 hour. Remove … Continue reading “Brazilwood Dye”