Sticky Lavender Geranium a fine plant for natural prints

As I get further into this adventure of searching out plants that will make a lovely natural dye or print, I find that sometimes the best and most interesting are just under my feet.  I have had this plant in my garden for many years, enjoying it sometimes and, at times, disparing of it's rather messy look after blooming. I am looking now for my nature print project for interesting leaves, and after a search on the internet and in a wildflower book, I found the identity of the mystery plant, commonly called Sticky Lavender Geranium. This self-sowing geranium has large palmate leaves, very different from other geraniums.  I was so surprised and pleased from my first prints, which are on cotton tee shirts...big, bold leafy prints. I have some bundled on a silk chiffon scarf.  I will post the results when it has cured for a bit.

Geranium viscosissimum

Onto cotton tee shirts with Cotinus, Eucalyptus, and Cochineal

Summer Black Bean dyeing, briefly

Early July.. 

Black bean dyeing: soaked 2 lbs. black beans for 36 hours. Drained the beans and added mordanted wool and mordanted silk scarf (alum) to soaking water (no heat added)..let sit for days until color deepened, rinsed, hung to dry

Noticed there was still plenty of color in dye bath, so I added a skein of pre-mordanted Licorice Twist wool yarn, color still good, and I love the variation on the Licorice twist

In our cool climate, the beans did not show signs of fermentation after 48 hours, so I slow cooked them with the usual suspects...onions, garlic, peppers and spices

I added a Tbsp. of vinegar to the dye bath, but you can play around with the Ph and get different shades which I intend to do on my next try.

This dye bath is also very sensitive to heat, so I didn’t heat the fabrics at all, just let the ambient air temperature do its thing.

The BB dye is supposed to be fugitive, but these have been “hanging out” for a few weeks and show no signs of fading…still waiting with fingers crossed

Silk Satin scarf with Black Bean soaking H2O dye

 2 wool skeins from Black Bean dye bath...Bulky and Dharma Licorice Twist

Close up, note the different tones on the Licorice Twist (pic is showing a little lighter than actual color)

Early Dye and Fiber Articles

On the History Channel's series for TV, "The Vikings" the characters are dressed mostly in drab and grey colors.  There were other colors available, and I don't know why they chose to portray the costumes so dark.  Here are some sources from the WWW illuminating the bright colors obtainable from the native plants.

Fibers Help Update the Rise of Culture, By Henry A. Shull   Harvard Crimson  September 25, 2009

http://www.thecrimson.com/article/2009/9/25/fibers-help-date-rise-of-culture/

Viking Age Dyestuffs

http://www.cs.vassar.edu/~capriest/vikdyes.html

http://www.hurstwic.org/history/articles/daily_living/text/clothing.htm

http://www.42nd-dimension.com/NFPS/nfps_colours.html

Interesting Q & A on Viking Textiles with nice Color Wheels of wool and information on plants and methods

http://www.bushcraftuk.com/forum/showthread.php?t=54737

Obsessed with Lichens

When I first started my natural dye project it was spring, and I looked at the flowers as sources for natural dyes.  Then as spring turned to summer, I constantly accessed and identified the roadside shrubs for dye sources.  In the fall, I scanned the woods and roadside shoulders for mushrooms (bad mushroom year), and now, as winter weather is here, I am amazed at the large quantity and variety of lichens that are brought down by the storms.

The symbiotic realtionship in lichens is that of a fungus and an algae or a fungus and a cyanobacteria. 

A lichen is a symbiosis. That means that it is two or more organisms living together such that both are more successful within the partnership than they would have been if they were living on their own. With lichens the basic components of this partnership are 1) a fungus called the 'mycobiont' and 2) one or more algae and/or a cyanobacteria called the 'photobiont'. 

There are about 13,500 species of lichen on the planet.  Lichens are basically of 3 types:

Foliose - which means that they are leaf like in their structure.

Crustose - those are like a crust stuck to a surface and are usually very thin and tightly attached. These are about 75% of all lichens.

Fruticose - these are branched structures.

One of the problems with lichens is that they can be very hard to identify, but at least it's fairly easy to classify them by the above and work from there.

Found today in the Pygmy Forest, Lobaria pulmonaria, Lungwort Lichen. 

http://www.fs.fed.us/wildflowers/plant-of-the-week/lobaria_pulmonaria.shtml  It can be used as a dye.  I gathered what had been blown from a bull pine and scattered on the forest floor.

I learned today that Cladonia crispata  is the most common mat in pygmy forest.

A couple of good sources for Linchen info and pictures:

http://macrolichen.com/PygmyForest/ 

http://www.waysofenlichenment.net/lichens/alphabetic_index.html

The Sharnoff pictures, authors of Lichens of North America, are very professional.

From a recent walk through our woods

Like shapes: Lichen Lobaria pulmonaria (Lungwort lichen) from Bull Pine in Pygmy forest and Oak Leaves from Cloverdale, CA bundled in silk, awaiting the unwrapping

Usnea rubiginea, Old man's beard, red, from the Pygmy forest, downed tree.  I am going to do my first Ammonia extraction dye with this as soon as I get a little more.  It's ok if it dries first.

Usnea sp.? on branch

Lungwort lichen (Lobaria pulmonaria) and unmordanted wool in water extract dye bath.  Lichen was soaked overnight and then simmered for 2 hours, cooled, and then the wetted yarn was immersed.  It's out on the porch to solar dye (except not much sun right now), so this may take a while.  Water color is golden, rusty orange, yarn is tannish.

Lichen dyed yarns...Lobaria pulmonaria and Usnea sp. BWM (Boiling water method..soak, simmer, leave overnight, add soaked yarn and simmer again)  Leave to cool and until color desired is obtained.

 Usnea sp. mass gathered from fallen pine tree.

 Usnea BWM dye bath with yarn being removed in net bag.  The dye bath appeared colorless, but when the yarn was left to simmer for an hour and a half and sat overnight, it turned a lively golden color.

Usnea rubiginea in AFM (Ammonia fermentation Method) being left to sit for weeks and weeks.  I shake the jar a few times each day to aerate.  The dye bath will have to be neutralized with water and acid (vinegar) before fibers are added.