{"id":94,"date":"2021-10-16T18:04:26","date_gmt":"2021-10-16T18:04:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/zenofjen.com\/fausta\/?p=94"},"modified":"2021-11-03T12:14:20","modified_gmt":"2021-11-03T12:14:20","slug":"natural-dyes-part-3","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/zenofjen.com\/fausta\/2021\/10\/16\/natural-dyes-part-3\/","title":{"rendered":"Natural Dyes Part 3 (Thoughts and discoveries)"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Methods, Thoughts, Discoveries, and the Future<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>I am NOT a fiber person (haha) so my spinning skills are questionable at best. Hanks of undyed merino were purchased once my dyeing experiments outpaced my spinning speed!<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>To raise pH I used washing soda or ammonia, depending on the type of dyestuff and what results I saw from small pH changes. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>To lower pH I used white vinegar. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>I did most of my experimentation with a stainless steel pot and a million canning jars. Micro-experiments were carried out on paper plates for easy cleanup. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>After weeks of shoving mushrooms in my pockets, or in plastic bags that then went into my pockets, I decided that I really needed a better solution. I used commercially-available basketry supplies, Alder twigs, and birchbark to make myself a gathering basket. I tried dyeing the cane with a mushroom dye, and the results were.. poor. I thought that maybe another plant-based dye might work better so tried one of the oak galls- and the results weren&#8217;t any better. So, I just skipped the colorant and wove the basket as-is. My daughter has named it my &#8216;Nature Purse&#8217; \ud83d\ude42<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-gallery columns-2 is-cropped wp-block-gallery-1 is-layout-flex wp-block-gallery-is-layout-flex\"><ul class=\"blocks-gallery-grid\"><li class=\"blocks-gallery-item\"><figure><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"960\" height=\"720\" src=\"https:\/\/zenofjen.com\/fausta\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/10\/244470089_10103704293258717_5047893932570491538_n-1.jpg\" alt=\"\" data-id=\"120\" data-link=\"https:\/\/zenofjen.com\/fausta\/2021\/10\/16\/natural-dyes-part-3\/244470089_10103704293258717_5047893932570491538_n-1\/#main\" class=\"wp-image-120\" srcset=\"https:\/\/zenofjen.com\/fausta\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/10\/244470089_10103704293258717_5047893932570491538_n-1.jpg 960w, https:\/\/zenofjen.com\/fausta\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/10\/244470089_10103704293258717_5047893932570491538_n-1-300x225.jpg 300w, https:\/\/zenofjen.com\/fausta\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/10\/244470089_10103704293258717_5047893932570491538_n-1-768x576.jpg 768w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 960px) 100vw, 960px\" \/><\/figure><\/li><li class=\"blocks-gallery-item\"><figure><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"682\" height=\"1024\" src=\"https:\/\/zenofjen.com\/fausta\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/10\/DSC_5470-1-682x1024.jpg\" alt=\"\" data-id=\"122\" data-full-url=\"https:\/\/zenofjen.com\/fausta\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/10\/DSC_5470-1-scaled.jpg\" data-link=\"https:\/\/zenofjen.com\/fausta\/2021\/10\/16\/natural-dyes-part-3\/dsc_5470-1\/#main\" class=\"wp-image-122\" srcset=\"https:\/\/zenofjen.com\/fausta\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/10\/DSC_5470-1-682x1024.jpg 682w, https:\/\/zenofjen.com\/fausta\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/10\/DSC_5470-1-200x300.jpg 200w, https:\/\/zenofjen.com\/fausta\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/10\/DSC_5470-1-768x1153.jpg 768w, https:\/\/zenofjen.com\/fausta\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/10\/DSC_5470-1-1023x1536.jpg 1023w, https:\/\/zenofjen.com\/fausta\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/10\/DSC_5470-1-1364x2048.jpg 1364w, https:\/\/zenofjen.com\/fausta\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/10\/DSC_5470-1-scaled.jpg 1706w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 682px) 100vw, 682px\" \/><\/figure><\/li><\/ul><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Thoughts and Discoveries<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>I love wandering through the woods! However, during the course of this project (and into the future) I have determined the following things: <\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\"><li>The answer is probably brown, or yellow (What&#8217;s this? I wonder what this will do!)<\/li><li>Purple mushrooms are a cruel lie. <\/li><li>90% of mushrooms all resemble each other and are useless for dyeing OR eating. <\/li><li>I have lived on this property for four years and only just last week discovered that I have a LOT of alder trees, and a lot less birch and beech than I had thought! <\/li><li>The names of mushrooms in some cases are completely  hilarious (wolf farts!)<\/li><li>The longer I have been in the woods, the more off-color my mental nicknames for mushrooms get.. early in a ramble the names are simple like &#8220;Old man with teeth&#8221; or &#8220;Yellow army hat&#8221;. It goes downhill from there. <\/li><li>Whatever you are actively looking for, you won&#8217;t find- so enjoy the wander and find NEW things! <\/li><li>People look at you REALLY WEIRD when you are uprooting weeds (bedstraw) or picking wild grapes behind your kid&#8217;s hockey practice rink<\/li><li>Lichens, as a whole, smell AMAZING when boiling- like subtle perfume.<\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">The Future<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>I have a WHOLE LOT to discover still!! I have tons of trees and plants to find and use, a new mordant to try (Tin), and I really need to learn to spin better- or at least faster, I used all my spun yarn and then had to make new yarn every time I found something new, until I gave in and purchased a couple hanks of undyed wool to test out dyes with limited shelf lives (berries etc). <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>At some point, I *will* use some fermented urine&#8230; but only when nobody else is in this house. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>I am going to try to actually write this up as an actual research-style paper, but that&#8217;s probably a wintertime project, because I am having way too much fun in the woods to sit in front of this computer!<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Methods, Thoughts, Discoveries, and the Future I am NOT a fiber person (haha) so my spinning skills are questionable at best. Hanks of undyed merino were purchased once my dyeing experiments outpaced my spinning speed! To raise pH I used washing soda or ammonia, depending on the type of dyestuff and what results I saw &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/zenofjen.com\/fausta\/2021\/10\/16\/natural-dyes-part-3\/\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-94","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/zenofjen.com\/fausta\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/94","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/zenofjen.com\/fausta\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/zenofjen.com\/fausta\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/zenofjen.com\/fausta\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/zenofjen.com\/fausta\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=94"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"https:\/\/zenofjen.com\/fausta\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/94\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":187,"href":"https:\/\/zenofjen.com\/fausta\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/94\/revisions\/187"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/zenofjen.com\/fausta\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=94"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/zenofjen.com\/fausta\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=94"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/zenofjen.com\/fausta\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=94"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}