To create a sustainable dye I decided to use the same method as I did in the summer, solar dyeing. I thought I would use this method not only because it is the most sustainable method of dyeing but also to see if this method would work all year round and especially at the end of October, when there is very little sunshine and a lot of rain.
I decided to trial making a dye from ghost pumpkin flesh and also from black turtle beans. I researched to see if you could create a dye from pumpkin flesh and I found nothing so I thought it would be good to experiment with it to see if it would work.
I then placed the pumpkin fresh into a mason jar and some black turtle bean into another mason jar. I then poured into both mason jars some boiling water, I then closed the jars before leaving the dyes in the garden for 3 day to develop a stronger colour.
After 3 days they were ready to filter, so I filtered the dyes. Filtering the natural dyes allows you to have a pure dye with no natural material left still in the jars.
Now, my pumpkin flesh dye and my black turtle bean dye is filtered and is ready to dye my fabric samples.
I also created a dye from ground coffee bean, which is as close to its natural form as possible as it has not been processed. I did not use solar dyeing to create this dye because the dye has such an intense colour straight away and does not need time to develop.
I just put the ground coffee into a glass jug before pouring some boling water into the jug. I then left the coffee for an 1 hour to allow the ground coffee to settle at the bottom of the jug before I filtered it.
Once all the ground had settled I filtered the coffee through calico which is place in a funnel. The filtered coffee went into a mason jar, the dye is now ready to dye my calico samples.
Now my dyes are ready I decided to create a cardboard template that is the size that I want my samples to be, this helps to ensure all my samples are the same size and they are neat.
I decided I wanted to do for 8 different samples for each of the dyes, I thought that it would be interesting to put all the samples in the jar and take one sample every 10 minutes for an hour and then take out the 7th sample after 2 hours and then the 8th sample after 3 hours. I thought this would be interesting to see if the longer the piece of fabric had been in the dye whether the colour would be stronger. I hoped to create a colour chart effect with each sample being a bit darker or stronger in colour.
So, I cut out 24 pieces of calico ready to dye.
I then placed the pieces of 8 pieces of calico in each mason jar and then I took one sample out every 10 minutes for an hour and then took the 7th sample after 2 hours and then the 8th sample after 3 hours. I placed the samples onto kitchen paper to dry, under each sample I wrote how long the were soaking in the dye.
Compared to when I last conducted my natural dye trials in the summer there is now lower level uv and heat from the sun. I think that the uv and heat from the sun is the key to developing a strong coloured dye and as there is less uv light and less sunshine these dyes are not as strong in colour, however this process is still very effective.
I am happy with the samples I have created from these 3 dyes, however, I have not achieved a colour chart effect with these samples as there is not much variation in the colour between each sample that have soaked for different times. I think the strongest colour I have achieved with these 3 samples was after an 1 hour of soaking after this the colour does not get obviously much stronger.
I am pleased with the colour I achieved with these 3 dyes made from coffee, pumpkin flesh and black turtle bean. Also, the samples were a very similar colour to what I expected they would be. The pumpkin flesh sample did not have a strong colour and it is very subtle, whilst the coffee has a strong intense colour. The black turtle bean samples have a tie dyed look with a mixture of blue and light purple patches of colour.
These are my finished samples.
Unpicking Fashion 