October 6, 2015

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September Yellow

Have you ever had a dye pot on your stove?

Me neither! 

At home we are exploring color this year--mostly color that we can pull right out of our backyard or kitchen. So here's September Yellow.

FIG LEAF DYE

We chopped fresh leaves, and dyed one napkin just in fig leaf dye, and the other we combined pomegranate tannins (from pomegranate rinds), and the fig leaf brew. That one actually worked and held the color!

TURMERIC & NASTURTIUM PAINT

We smashed nasturtium flowers and combined them with an egg yolk and water to make a lemony-colored paint. We also mixed ground turmeric with the same tempera mix and made a gritty, but deep orange-ish/browny-yellow paint. 

MAKING ACORN MORDANT

Oak trees are common here in Santa Barbara, and their acorns are filled with tannins, which help bind a dye to fabric fibers. We gathered acorns, hammered the shells, crushed and ground the acorn meat, then rinsed the tannins into a pot to use later. Easy peasy, plus the hammering part was super fun.

YARROW LEAF AND FLOWER DYE

We ran around our yard chopping yarrow leaves and gathered both dried and fresh flowers. We simmered the leaves and flowers in water to create the yellow dye, then added alum, a mineral mordant to one pot, and our acorn tannins to another pot. The alum/yarrow pot turned lemony yellow, while the acorn/yarrow pot turned a blotchy brown.

And here is September's yellow, nicely folded, and ready to meet October's purple...