Volna vs. bombaž - Wool vs cotton

Tole ni kakšna pajčevina, ampak štrenice bombažne preje, prevezane z volneno prejo. In kaj je tu tako zanimnivega? Zame to, da sta bili obe barvani hkrati v istem loncu. Ta razlika, kako rastlinsko barvilo prime volna (namreč odlično) in koliko rastlinske barve sprejme bombaž - bore malo.
This is not a spiderweb but small skeins of cotton yarn tied with wool yarn. And what is so interesting about it? For me it is the fact that both were dyed in the same dyepot at the same time. The difference between the amount of plant dye taken by wool (excellent) and that taken by cotton (poor).

Tele niti so bile pobarvane z zelenimi orehovimi lupinami. Volna je temno rjava, bombaž pa sivkasto bež. Na nekaj mestih je videti precej močneje rdečkasto rjavo obarvane madeže. Nastali so tako, da sem vlažno prejo obesila nad lonec in jo samo delno pomočila v barvilno raztopino. Barva je nato potovala po mokri preji navzgor: različne barve, ki jih vsebujejo zelene orehove lupine, so potovale različno visoko, kar se na zviti štrenici ne vidi tako dobro, ko je visela nad loncem, pa je bilo dobro vidno. 

No, takole se igram z rastlinskimi barvili in temu rečem "rastlinska barvna kromatografija", he-he.

These yarns were dyed with green walnut hulls. The wool is dark brown and the cotton greyish-beige. Some spots are dyed fairly better - there are reddish-brown colorations. They developed when I hung the moist skein above the dyepot and dipped only a part into the dyeing solution. The colour travelled up the moist yarn: different colours contained in green walnut hulls travelled different distances upwards, which is not so well seen on the twisted skein but was very well seen on the skein hanging above the pot.

 Well, this is how I play with plant dyes and call it "plant colour chromatography", he-he.

Poletno barvanje 2 - Summer dyeing 2

Spet šentjanževka, kaj pa! Razen najsvetlejših dveh (na zgornji sliki v sredini spodaj) je vsa volna barvana s šentjanževko, pisana pa še z zelenimi orehi.

St. John's wort again, what else could it be! Except for the lightest skeins (at the bottom in the picture above) all the yarn is dyed with St. John's wort , and the variegated yarn has been dipped also in a walnut dyebath.

Barvala sem volneno in bombažno prejo. Na volni sem dobila tele lepe rjave in rumene tone, na bombažu pa komaj kaj barve (za primerjavo je na njej položena štrenica z nekaj bele niti), zato sem eno pomočila še v železovo vodo za močno sivo barvo.

I dyed wool and cotton yarn. Wool acquired these beautiful brown and yellow colours whereas cotton hardly took any colour (I placed a tiny  skein with some white yarn on top), so I dipped one skein in iron water to get strong grey.     

Rjava ima lep rdečkast pridih in mi je po vsem temnem orehu prav všeč.

Brown has a reddish hue to it which I quite like after all the dark walnut browns.   

 Tole sem barvala kontaktno, se pravi, tesno sem povila cvetove v čimžano prejo in jo po malem parila nekaj ur. Rezultat je prav zadovoljiv. Mogoče si spletem brezrokavnik, zdaj ko imam več štren.
This was contact dyed, that is I wound flowers tightly in skeins of mordanted yarn and steamed for several hours, with some breaks. I may knit a tank top now that I've got several skeins.

 Poskusila sem volno aranžirati na mladem boru, pa sta nastali tidve sliki.
I tried to arrange the wool skeins on a young pine tree, so I took these two pictures.

Brazilwood (Rotholz)

Pred časom sem dobila rdečkast lesni drobir v vrečki z napisom Rotholz (Wollknoll). Nekaj dni sem ga namakala v vodi, nato odlila tekočino in pobarvala prvo štreno (na levi). Ni mi bila všeč. Nato sem se lotila bombažnega blaga. Posula sem drobir (skupaj z rabljenimi koreninami barvilnega brošča), za nekaj dni prepustila soncu, da opravi nalogo barvanja in si dala delat bluzo (na spodnjih slikah). Ni mi bilo všeč.Končno sem za nasvet povprašala na Yahoojevi skupini NaturalDyes in drobir skuhala z malo kisa. Krasni vijolični odtenki, zelo močne barve - zelo lepo! Pobarvala sem tudi nekaj bombažne prejice (obešeni sta na ovratniku bluze na spodnjih slikah), pa še nekaj česane volne. Barva menda ni preveč obstojna na svetlobi, zato je bolje, da material, barvan s tem lesom, ni na direktnem močnem soncu in tudi ne dalj časa na sončni svetlobi. Some time ago I was given some reddish wood chips saying it was Rotholz (from Wollknoll). I soaked them in tap water for a few days, poured the liquid off and dyed the first skein (from left). Didn't like it. Passed on to cotton fabric, placed the chips all over (together with used madder roots), sundyed it for a few days and had a blouse made (the pictures below). Didn't like it. Finally I asked for advice in Yahoo group NaturalDyes and boiled the chips together with some vinegar. The lovely purples, very intense, quite dark - beautiful! I also dyed some cotton yarn (placed two skeins on the collar of the blouse to show) and some carded wool. The colour is said to have only medium to poor lightfastness so direct sunlight or prolonged exposure to sun is best avoided.

Šentjanževka je carica - (2) - St. John's wort rules

Kot sem omenila v zadnji objavi, še ni bilo konec mojega ekperimentiranja s šentjanževko. Še naprej sem uporabljala isto barvilno kopel, delno do zelo izrabljeno. Barvala sem bombažno, volneno in laneno prejo. Enobarvno prejo sem dobila z barvanjem cele štrenice v kopeli, melirane pa sem dobila tako, da sem vlažno štrenico obesila nad lonec in v takočino potopila samo tretjino. Različna barvila, ki jih vsebujejo cvetki šentjanževke, so potovala novzgor po preji 24 do 48 ur in se ustavila različno visoko. Najbolj je bilo to opazno na volneni preji, kjer so nekatera mesta vijolična in zelenkasta (samo kaj ko se na sliki to ne vidi). Idejo sem dobila pri ascendentni kromatografiji - uf, kako znanstveno to zveni, mar ne! Žal pa vsi ti poskusi niso ponovljivi - preprosto povedano, iste barve lahko ponovno dobim zgolj slučajno - adijo znanstvenost :-( As I said in my last post that was not yet an end to my experimentation. Using the same, partly to very exhausted dyeing bath from St. John's wort flowers I dyed some cotton, wool and flax yarns. The solid colours were obtained by immersion dyeing while the variegated colours were obtained by suspending moist yarn over the pot, with the lower third of the skein immersed. I let the different colours climb up the moist yarn over 24 to 48 hours: they fixed at differing spots, which may be seen on the wool yarn with purplish and greenish spots (but the photo fails to show it). I was inspired by ascending chromatography - wow, this does sound scientific, doesn't it! Alas these experiments are failing in repeatability - saying in plain words, I can't obtain the same colours except by chance - very unscientific:-( Nadaljevala sem z isto delno izrabljeno barvilno kopeljo iz cvetov šentjanževke. Od leve desne si sledijo: bež bombažna prejica za vezenje, bela bombažna prejica za vezenje, bel lanen sukanec za klekljanje, bela bombažna prejica za vezenje, bela bombažna prejica za vezenje, +železova kopel, Vse so bile čimžane z galunom+pralno sodo (skupaj). bež bombažna prejica za vezenje, čimžana s taninom, bež bombažna prejica za vezenje, čimžana z galunom+pralno sodo, +železova kopel. Eksperimentiranje mi je bilo v užitek prav toliko kot sem vesela rezultatov. Vedno mi je hudo, da ne morem pokazati pravih barv: imam dobro kamero, a kaj ko so barve varljive, naravne pa še toliko bolj. Kar ne morem nehati ekperimentirati s šentjanževko. Verjetno bom septembra eksperimentirala z zrelimi rastlinami, z bunkicami s semeni in s posušenimi rožami. I went on with the same partly exhausted dyeing bath from St. John's wort flowers. From left to right they are: beige cotton yarn for stitching, white cotton yarn for stitching, white flax yarn for bobbin lace, white cotton yarn for stitching, white cotton yarn for stitching with iron afterbath, All were mordanted in alum and washing soda (together). beige cotton yarn for stitching mordanted with tanin, beige cotton yarn for stitching, mordanted in alum and washing soda, with an iron afterbath. I enjoyed the experimentation as much as I love the results. It always hurts me I can't show the real colours - the camera is a good one but the colours are tricky, and the natural colours even more so. I can hardly make myself stop experimenting with St. John's wort. I believe in September I'm going to experiment with mature plants, with seed balls and with dried material.

Šentjanževka je carica - St. John's wort rules

Spet sem nabirala cvetje šentjanževke - na maminem vrtu, ob poljskih poteh, na travnikih, v hribih, na zapuščenih zaraslih zemljiščih... Letos sem jih dobila izredno veliko in sem tudi barvala z njimi izredno veliko. Na volni sem dobila standardne barvne serije zeleno-vijolično-rjavo-zlato rumeno-limonino rumeno, z vršički s popki tik pred začetkom cvetenja pa tudi izjemno oranžne odtenke. I collected St. John's wort flowers again - in Mum's garden, along field paths, in meadows, in the mountains, in waste areas... This year I got extreme quantities and also did extremely much dyeing with it. On wool it gave the standard colour series green - violet-brown - golden yellow - lemon yellow, but also extraordinary orange hues with tops with buds just prior to blooming. Ker sem imela tako veliko materiala, sem se odločila za eksperimentiranje. Posebej sem barvala s cvetki (in popki), posebej z zeljo-listki in posebej z oskubljenimi stebli. Presenečena sem ugotovila, da barvilo vsebujejo prav vsi deli (samo korenina ne, kar sem ugotovila lani), seveda pa ga je zdaleč največ v cvetkih, skoraj nič manj v popkih, tudi zel ima precej barvila, pa celo oskubljena stebla. Kdo bi si mislil! Pa sem mislila, da so samo cvetki kaj vredni za barvanje. Na spodnji sliki je volna, barvana samo z zeljo. Realna barva je bolj v zgornjem delu slike oziroma, bolje rečeno - volna sploh ni lisasta, ampak lepo enakomerno obarvana. Since I had so much material at hand I decided to experiment. I used separately flowers (with buds), separately the green parts without stems, and separately stems without flowers or leaves. I was surprised to find out that all the parts of the plant contain the dyeing substance (with the exception of roots, hich I found out last year), flowers being the richest in it, of course. The buds are almost as rich in dye, the leaves also contain much dye, and even the bare stems have some. Who would have thought it! And I was led to believe only the flowers are worth using for dyeing. The picture below shows wool yarn dyed with green leaves only. The colour is more realistic in the upper section of the picture - or, to be more precise, the yarn is not variegated, the colour is solid. Nato sem se pogumno lotila barvanja bombažne preje za pletenje in vezenje ter bombažne in lanene prejice za klekljanje. Za to nisem nikjer dobila nobenih navodil, pa imam kar nekaj knjig o barvanju z rastlinami. Nekaj prejice za klekljanje sem barvala s šentjanževko že prejšnja leta, pa sem dobila tako različne rezultate, da nisem vedela, pri čem sem. In me je res hudo presenetila. Medtem ko na volni po navadi daje standardne barvne serije, je na bombažu in lanu povsem nepredvidljiva. Najbolj me je zanimala barva prve kopeli, ki na volni daje tako lepo zeleno. Na bombažu in lanu daje vse od zlato zelene, močne rumene, modrikasto zelene (prva slika levo), sive (druga slika desno). I was encouraged and tackled dyeing cotton yarn for knitting and stitching and cotton/linen yarn for bobbin lace. I 'd found no instructions or description although I do possess a few books on natural dyeing. I had dyed some yarn for bobbin lace in previous years only to get results that were so inconsistent that left me perplexed. I was perplexed again. While it yields standard colour sets on wool St. John's wort is quite unpredictable on cotton and linen. I was mostly interested in the first dyeing in fresh dyeing bath that gives such a lovely green on wool. And what does it give - or at least gabe me - on cotton and linen: everything from golden green, intense yellow, bluish green (first pisture left corner) and grey (secong picture right corner). Tudi barva kopeli se je letos obnašala čudno - pri eni seriji je po prvem barvanju z galunom čimžane preje kopel postala zelene barve in je taka ostala ves čas, pa sem pomakala in namakala kar precej prejic. Druga kopel, tudi prvo kuhanje samo cvetkov, pa ne !?! The colour of the dyeing bath itself also behaved in a strange way this year: in one batch it turned green after the first dyeing of alum mordanted yarn and remained green throughout the dyeing session, and believe I did dip and soak and cook many a little skein of yarn. The other byth, also obtained by the first cooking of flowers only did not shift to green !?! No, roke sem imela pa takele - ampak to nič ne boli in nič ne škodi in se v enem dnevu izmije. And my hands looked like this - I didn't mind, it doesn't hurt nor damage the skin and is washed off within one day. To še ni konec dosedanjega eksperimentiranja, ampak blog je že tako predolg, se bojim, da mi jo bo blogger kaj zagodel, zato raje objavim... This is not yet an end to my experimentation - only my writing is too long already and I'm afraid the Blogger may play a nasty trick on me so I'm posting it...

Bombažna preja, barvana z rastlinami - Cotton thread, natural dyed

Za spremembo sem barvala bombažno prejo za vezenje in za klekljanje, v barvilni kopeli in kot vrvico za prevezovanje zavitkov pri rastlinskem tiskanju. Nekaj barve je od čebulnih listov, pa od bakrene žice v kisu, svežih rabarbarinih listov, izrabljene košeniljke ... Navitje prejice se mi zdi pa tako lepo, da sem ga kar morala slikati :-) For a change, I set to dyeing cotton yarn for stitching and bobbin lace, both in dyeing baths and yarn used for tying rolls in plant printing. Some are dyed with onion skins, others with vinegar in which copper wire had been soaking, then fresh rhubarb leaves, cochineal exhaust, ... I find the coiled up yarn so beautiful that I just couldn't help taking some photos :-)