Fabric wrapped around stones and held in place by elastics… I wonder what the dye pattern will look like…circles I think.
With my foray into cabbage dye, I’d already built up a real affinity for veggie dyes and this day’s class made for some enjoyable experimenting. Dr. Miller had spent time (in some cases months) gathering the necessary ingredients:
-onion skins (yellowish dye)
-avocado pits and skins (pinky dye)
-red cabbage (pink with vinegar added, purple on its own, teal with dish soap added and blue with baking soda added)
-turmeric (bright yellow sunshine dye)
-black beans (bluish dye)
To prepare the dye, the veggies were boiled for hours in water and then the pre-mordanted cotton was added. Prior to adding the fabric, we experimented with tying it with string and elastic bands in different configurations to get donburi dye patterns as Dr. Miller is demonstrating in the picture below.
I am looking foarward to seeing the results. I love the gentle, old-fashioned pastel colours that are produced by this type of dying.