Silina ali oblajst - Isatis tinctoria - Woad

Na vrtu so mi zelo lepo rastli trije grmički siline, ki sem jih vzgojila iz semena v lončkih na balkonu, pa še en grm od lani. Ta je najprej cvetel in semenil, potem pa je naprej rastel kot bi bil letošnji, kar ni običajno.
Volno - seveda našo domačo - sem dobro oprala in nato barvala po postopku Leene Riihelle (http://riihivilla.blogspot.fi/2009/10/my-dyeings-with-woad-minun.html) . Obstaja več postopkov za barvanje s svežimi listi siline. Dva sem preskusila že lani poleti, ko sem silino prvič vzgojila na vrtu, pa nista delovala. Po kakšnih štirih neuspelih poskusih sem že skoraj obupala, potem sem pa poskusila še Leenin postopek - et voila! dobila lepo modro.
Tole barvanje je bilo z veliko količino listov, kakih 1200 gramov, ker sem porezala vse liste pred napovedano slano. Tako sem dobila lepe modre, nekje med zgornjo in spodnjo sliko.

There were three bushes of woad thriving in the garden that I'd grown from seed in pots on my balcony, and an additional plant from last year. The latter produced flowers and seeds, then it grew on as if it were this year's plant, which is unusual.
I prepared wool yarn - naturally it was Slovenian wool - washing it well and then dyed it with woad following the procedure described by Leena Riihella here (http://riihivilla.blogspot.fi/2009/10/my-dyeings-with-woad-minun.html). Dyeing with fresh woad leaves can be done in different ways. I tried two last summer when I grew woad for the first time: they both failed. After about four failures I almost gave up but then I tried Leena's procedure - et voila! I got beautiful blue.
Dyeing was done with a large amount of leaves, about 1200 gram. In the beginning of October as frost was forecasted I harvested all leaves. I got a couple of nice blue skeins of wool yarn, the colour is somewhere between that shown in the two pictures above.   

 

Po nekaj pobarvanih štrenicah intenzivne modre je bila naslednja takale - nekaj puste drap z nakazanimi, skoraj neopaznimi odsevi svetlo modre in lila-roza. Tudi naslednja štrenica je bila enako neprivlačna.

After a couple of skeins dyed intense blue the next skein was this - a drab beige with barely perceptible hints of light blue and pink. The next skein came out equally unattractive.

Naslednji dan sem - bolj zato, da barvno kopel popolnoma izčrpam - poskusila s striženo volno ovce Bluefaced Leicester in dobila tole:

On the next day I threw in a few curls of Bluefaced Leicester, ore in an attempt to exhaust the dyebath than in any hope to get good colour - and got this:

 

 

Ju-hu! Še en kosem v barvilno kopel - in spet takale krasna barva! In še en kosem, in spet!

 

Waw! Another fluff of Bluefaced Leicester went in - and again this gorgeous colour! Another fluff  - again this colour!

 

 

V resnici je barva rahlo lila, ne čisto roza. Kosem  volne na levi je bolj izrazito lila,  a se na sliki mogoče ne vidi.

 

In real life the colour also contains some blue, it's not pure pink. The fluff on the left is more blue which may not be seen clearly.

 

Naslednji dan sem spet barvala kosme strižene volne Blufaced Leicester, tri zapored. Zdaj so bile barve malo bolj na oranžno. Opogumljena z doseženimi barvami sem en kosem namočila v okisano vodo, enega samo v vodo in enega v vodo s pralno sodo (bazično). Barve so bile: kisova lepo roza, samo v vodi roza z malo bež odtenkom in v bazični vodi precej drap (od desne proti levi).

 

On the next day I dyed fluffs of Bluefaced Leicester again, three dyeings in a row. Now the colours came out a bit more orange-ey. Encouraged with the colours obtained I dipped one fluff in water with vinegar, one in just tap water and a third one in water to which I'd added washing soda (alcali). The colours were: vinegar - nice pink, just water - pink with hints of beige, washing soda - rather beige (from right to left in the picture).

 

 

Ta mi ni bila preveč všeč pa sem jo namočila še v kisovo vodo: postala je precej bolj roza.

 

I didn't like the latter so I soaked it in vinegar in water to obtain a pretty more pink colour.

 

Tako sem od teh blitvi podobnih listov dobila tri povsem različne barve. To pa je ustvarjalni

užitek!

 

So these spinache-like leaves gave me three different colours. What creative pleasure!

 

 



 

 

Pa še posnetek nastajanja modre na volni iz kopeli. Žal je posnetek res amaterski, narejen z mobijem enoročno, z drugo pa obračam štreno, da se dobro prezrači na vse strani. https://picasaweb.google.com/110721982076288214726/STelefona#5931697817468940258 

 

I'm also adding a video showing wool yarn turning into blue as it comes from the dye vat. Sadly, the video is highly unprofessional: Imade it with my mobile phone, holding it in one hand and manipulating the wool skein with the otnher to aerate it well.

https://picasaweb.google.com/110721982076288214726/STelefona#5931697817468940258