natural dyeing, muscari on cellulose fiber

Clivia Miniata, an evergreen herbaceous flowering plant native to southern Africa.

Following up on last week’s post, ‘eco stain with muscari’, that focus on using a kitchen rolling-pin for color compression on a piece of fabric. I was delighted with the deep violet color from muscari by using this simple technique. This piques my interest to see if muscari will print or give color to boiling heat.

This post is an experiment using muscari or grape hyacinth, with other flowers growing in my garden. The plant materials were bundled in an old cotton sheet that were previously pre-mordant with alum and soy milk; and then put to boiled in simmering heat for about two hours. The bundle was taken out from the pot and left out to cool overnight, before I opened it the following day.

The most rewarding and exciting things I have learned in natural dyeing is that some dye source give amazing result. In this experiment, and quite by accident actually–a combination of brown, umber, and greens from the heather. Sadly, the clivia does not print, but merely stained light to faint hues of pink onto the fabric.

clivia, muscari, and scotch heather bundled in cotton, and boiled in simmering heat.

hues in pink, blues and greens

light to dark violet blue print from muscari; pinkish color came from clivia.

almost perfect

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