Pistacia chinensis, or Ornamental Pistachio...green foliage during the year turns a showy red in autumn. My neighbor, Sooz, put some from her tree in a plastic tub and microwaved it a few times; the water turned pink, so she gave me the rest of her fall leaves plus a bagful from some friends in the Sierras where the trees line Hwy 50. Oh, joy, plenty for experiments.
Fall pistachio leaves, nicely red and delicate.
Pistachio leaf prints, bottom left, on watercolor paper.
Dye bath is definitely red.
Skein of yarn dyed with pistachio leaf dye.
The pistachio leaf dye bath and two skeins of dyed wool. The first skein is tanner. I added some vinegar to the second dye bath with unmordanted wool in the aluminum pot. It was pinker. I would try it again with vinegar the first time.
Eucalyptus and Pistachio leaves bundled for dyeing.
Steamed for 2 hours.
Silk scarf with pistachio leaves and eucalyptus leaves.
Some nice eucalyptus prints along with the pistachio prints.
My new best friend: Scissors which deckle the edges of the watercolor paper. I was using the fold, dampen, tear method before, but this is much, much easier.
Hi Maggie,
ReplyDeleteI love the leaf prints you are getting!! Very, very nice! ;-) I wish we had that pistachio tree in our neck of the woods!
Do you really like the scissors better than folding, moistening and tearing? I just learned the latter, and like it better! LOL Isn't that funny! I guess 'different strokes for different folks' is right, huh?
xo
Judy
I was having trouble with the tearing..very thick paper was tearing badly. I am going to try different types of paper and see if that helps. The scissors hurt if I do to much. I do think the tear is a better look when it works.
DeleteThis is the ornamental type of pistachio...it seems to grow many place in the US
Deletehttp://www.ehow.com/about_6605537_chinese-pistachio-tree.html
Hi Maggie,
ReplyDeleteGreat results! Such a nice red color, is it from euca or mostly from pistachio?
If it is pistachio, does it stay red or shifts into browns? How wash fast is it, please?
The wash fastness is the second peculiar feature after the print itself to my mind. I am currently testing my prints by washing in mild detergents trying to figure out both the best dyes and the best detergent!
xo
Elena
Hi,
ReplyDeleteThe red is from the Chinese Pistachio. I haven't washed the printed silk. I gave it to a neighbor, the one who gave me the leaves, and she is going to iron it and wear it. She's my human guinea pig. I will let you know how it goes. I am a bit wary of it's fastness, as the yarn doesn't show any red. Sometimes I dry the prints, iron them with medium iron and let sit a bit before rinsing. That as helped with the color fastness. I used to rinse them out right away, but a lot of the color seemed to rinse out. I think it's India Flint who says to let them cure. We'll see, and my friend will keep me updated on the scarf.
I am liking seeing these experiments with the wonderful pistachio leaves!good you have a guinea pig for the "fastness issues"!
ReplyDelete