Wednesday, August 26, 2009

cedar apple rust fungus dye experiment #2

After I did the first dye experiment, I poured the left over dye bath into an enameled pot, added the fungus back to it and covered it with the lid. I left it in this pot for 4 months. After 4 months it still had a nice peachy orange color to it(shown in picture above). It did not smell bad or have any mold on it.
I strained the dye and put some Tunis wool into it. I let this set in a sunny(hot)spot for a few days. I was not getting much color so I poured it into my aluminum pot and covered it with glass(an old window pane). I let it sit for a few more days, it was so hot I could not remove it with my bare hands during the day. It took on more color. It did not get the peachy color as in the first dye experiment, but it is a nice khaki color. In the future I think I will dye with fresh fungus only for that nice peachy color.
You can't really see the color in the picture below. The first skein is from the first experiment and the second is from this experiment(it is actually darker than it shows up in the picture).

1 comment:

  1. Try adding ammonia to ph 9 and you might get a strong pink. I'm experimenting with the galls before the tentacles sprout and it works.

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