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Read Ebook: Vegetable Dyes: Being a Book of Recipes and Other Information Useful to the Dyer by Mairet Ethel
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Ebook has 643 lines and 23534 words, and 13 pages
Polygonum Hydropiper.
Polygonum Persecaria.
Poplar. Leaves.
Willow. Leaves.
PLANTS WHICH DYE GREEN
Larch. Bark, with alum.
PLANTS WHICH DYE BROWN
Onion. Skins.
Larch. Pine needles, collected in Autumn.
Red currants, with alum.
Walnut. Root and green husks of nut.
Dulse.
Lichens.
PLANTS WHICH DYE PURPLE
Damson. Fruit, with alum.
PLANTS WHICH DYE BLACK
Elder. Bark, with copperas.
Oak. Bark and acorns.
FOOTNOTES:
THE LICHEN DYES
"The Lichens should be gathered after some days of rain, they can then be more easily detached from the rocks. They should be well washed, dried, and reduced to a fine powder: 25 parts of pure river water are added to 1 of powdered lichen and 1 part of fresh quick lime to 10 parts powdered lichen. To 10 lbs. lichen half a pound sal ammoniac is sufficient when lime and sal ammoniac are used together. The vessel containing them should be kept covered for the first 2 or 3 days. Sometimes the addition of a little common salt or salt-petre will give greater lustre to the colours."
This method can be followed by anyone wishing to experiment with Lichens.
Dr. Westring did not use a mordant as a rule. Where the same species of Lichen grows on both rocks and trees, the specimens taken from rocks give the better colours.
ORCHIL OR ARCHIL AND CUDBEAR are substantive or non mordants dyes, obtained from Lichens of various species of Roccella growing on rocks in the Canary Islands and other tropical and sub-tropical countries. They used to be made in certain parts of Great Britain from various lichens, but the manufacture of these has almost entirely disappeared. They have been known from early times as dyes. They give beautiful purples and reds, but the colour is not very fast. The dye is produced by the action of ammonia and oxygen upon the crushed Lichens or weeds as they are called. The early way of producing the colour was by treating the Lichen with stale urine and slaked lime and this method was followed in Scotland. Orchil is applied to wool by the simple process of boiling it in a neutral or slightly acid solution of the colouring matter. 3% Sulphuric acid is a useful combination. Sometimes alum and tartar are used. It dyes slowly and evenly. It is used as a bottom for Indigo on wool and also for compound shades on wool and silk. For cotton and linen dyeing it is not used. It is rarely used by itself as the colour is fugitive, but by using a mordant of tin, the colour is made much more permanent.
RECIPES FOR DYEING WITH LICHENS
LIST OF LICHENS USED BY THE PEASANTRY OF DIFFERENT COUNTRIES FOR WOOL DYEING
SHADES OF RED, PURPLE AND ORANGE
SHADES OF BROWN
FOOTNOTES:
BLUE
INDIGO, WOAD, LOGWOOD
The other method is by the Indigo vat process which produces fast colours but is complicated and difficult. In order to colour with indigo it has to be deprived of its oxygen. The deoxidized indigo is yellow and in this state penetrates the woollen fibre; the more perfectly the indigo in a vat is deoxidized, the brighter and faster will be the colour. For wool dyeing the vats are heated to a temperature of 50?C. Cotton and linen are generally dyed cold.
TO MAKE EXTRACT OF INDIGO
Mix a little of the indigo with a small quantity of oil of vitriol, add a little chalk and stir well. Go on mixing gradually till all is used up. This should take an hour or two. Stir a few times each day for 4 or 5 days, adding about 1/2 oz. more of chalk by degrees. It is best mixed in a glass stoppered bottle or jar, and stirred with a glass rod. It must be kept from the air.
INDIGO EXTRACT .
INDIGO VAT FOR WOOL
HYDROSULPHITE-SODA VAT FOR WOOL
Next take 5 pints water, add hydrosulphite slowly, stirring gently until a reading of 1100 is shown on the hydrometer. If the hydrosulphite be weighed beforehand and the stock of the same be kept free from damp air, or great heat, for future vats the hydrometer can be dispensed with; it is simply weighed out and added slowly to the water. If added too quickly the hydrosulphite will cake, fall to the bottom and be difficult to dissolve.
Between dips add Stock Solution as required, if the vat goes blue and turbid add 3 to 4 fluid ozs. of hydrosulphite and warm up to 140?F. and wait 30 minutes. As a last resort add caustic soda solution very gradually. This should not be required if the Stock Solution is properly prepared.
Start to dye with weak vats, 20 to 40 minute dips, and finish with stronger vats. The more dips given to obtain a fixed shade, the faster will be the yarn to washing and rubbing. The yarn must be oxidized by exposure to the air for the same length of time as dipped. After the final dip, pass the yarn through a 10 gallon bath of water to which is added 3 ozs. of sulphuric acid, pure or hydrochloric. This neutralizes the caustic used. Wash yarn at least twice in water.
If, after washing until clear, the yarn should rub off badly, there is but one remedy. Wash same in Fuller's earth, and if the shade is then too pale, re-dye. If, through bad management of the vats, the yarn is dull, pass the yarn through a hot bath and wash in two waters. If yarn is streaky, take 10 gallons of water at 120?F., 1 oz. of hydrosulphite powder, 2 fluid ozs. liquid ammonia fort. 880, and let yarn lie in same for 60 minutes. Wash in two waters.
The following facts should be carefully noted:--
Indigo White is fixed on the yarn as Indigo White and on exposure to the air becomes blue.
The yarn, on removal from the vat, should come out greenish yellow or a greenish blue. The latter is for blue yarn and should not turn blue too quickly .
Rest the vats for 1 hour after 3 hours work. Never hurry the vats. It is a good thing to have hydrosulphite slightly in excess as this prevents premature oxidization; too much will strip off the indigo white already deposited on the yarn.
Caustic Soda must always be used with the greatest caution or the yarn will be tendered and ruined.
Finally, unless the yarn is completely scoured it is impossible to obtain a clear colour, or a blue which will not rub off.
It is not now known how the ancients prepared the blue dye, but it has been stated that woad leaves when covered with boiling water, weighted down for half-an-hour, the water then poured off treated with caustic potash and subsequently with hydrochloric acid, yield a good indigo blue. If the time of infusion be increased, greens and browns are obtained. It is supposed that woad was "vitrum" the dye with which Caesar said almost all the Britons stained their bodies. It is said to grow near Tewkesbury, also Banbury. It was cultivated till quite lately in Lincolnshire. There were four farms in 1896; one at Parson Drove, near Wisbech, two farms at Holbeach, and one near Boston. Indigo has quite superseded it in commerce.
LOGWOOD
Logwood is a dye wood from Central America, used for producing blues and purples on wool, black on cotton and wool, and black and violet on silk. It is called by old dyers one of the Lesser Dyes, because the colour was said to lose all its brightness when exposed to the air. But with proper mordants and with careful dyeing this dye can produce fast and good colours. Queen Elizabeth's government issued an enactment entirely forbidding the use of logwood. The person so offending was liable to imprisonment and the pillory. The principal use for logwood is in making blacks. The logwood chips should be put in a bag and boiled for 20 minutes to 1/2 an hour, just before using.
RECIPES for DYEING with LOGWOOD
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