This last October I took an eco-dyeing class with local Fort Collins artist Ayn Hanna. It was just a whim to try something new, and this process is very different from anything I’d tried before. Ayn is very organized and had class notes and worksheets all ready for us. She also had various leaves, natural dye baths and a couple of steamers heated up. The plant knowledge needed for this type of dying is more than I can describe in this blog, but there are several good books on the subject. I highly recommend taking a class from Ayn or someone in your area.
Preferably starting with wool or silk, start by soaking your natural fabric in water. Then wring the piece out, lay it flat and place an assortment of leaves on top. Using a dowel or copper pipe roll the fabric strip tight and bind with cord before placing the bundle in a steamer or dye bath. You can see the cord binding on the bottom edge of the dyed cloth where the dye bath is also the strongest. After soaking for several hours minimum, the bundles sat in my garage for about 3 weeks until I unwrapped them to see the magic.
Why are some of the leaves black and some orange? Well that is where the knowledge and experience come in. Strangely enough, eucalyptus leaves dye the fabric orange, but I didn’t get consistent results on this first try.
The piece above had some raspberry juice added, and I love the colors!
This one is on rayon and silk velvet. It ended up a gorgeous texture and sheen.
One of the challenges for me with this type of dying is the washability of the textile. Setting the dyes is not as sure as when using fiber reactive dyes. I made about 20 pieces of varying success that weekend and plan on experimenting with setting the dye on some of the rejects first. Will I use this dye process in the future? Well I might take the class every year! The set up was extensive with 5 dye baths and two steamers for about 8 of us to share. If I did this at home I think I would need to choose just one or two dye baths…maybe onion peel and walnut. Steaming worked well, but more pastel and I like a deeper color palette.
I’m sure that you will see some of these appear on future blogs, even if I only make purses out of them they would be beautiful! Thanks Ayn!
West Zen Studio 
Lovely first efforts! When I tried it I found that I need to learn to wrap tighter and have more patience. 😉
Have you seen Wendy Feldberg’s (Threadborne) work on both paper and cloth? Lots of eyecandy and inspiration there.
When I boiled beets the other day, I thought about the vegetable water and how that would stain fabric. It was such a beautiful red.
Love your blog Wendy!
Thanks, and be sure to research before dyeing with those beets. Nothing seems to come out as expected in Eco-dyeing!
These pieces are really beautiful, each one in its own way. I would have had a hard time letting them sit for 3 weeks. It must have been great fun to unwrap them. Can’t wait to see what you make with them!
They were supposed to sit for 4 weeks!
Scarves and purses, at least……dry clean? What fun you will have….my purse is so perfect!