Dyeing with Orchid Cacti flowers :- Pretty in Pink

Dyeing with Orchid Cacti flowers

This is an experiment where I have just taken what is around me and had a play. It is a plant that has alot of memories for me. When me daughter was born, there was an occasion when parts of my family joined together to celebrate her birth, at my in-laws house.

On that day, my Greek mother-in-law, my English mother and my Scottish godmother all shared their love of gardening. I’m not quite sure how I missed the gene but it definitely didn’t find its way to me.

Anyway on that day, my mother-in-law gave a cutting of this plant to my godmother. Some years later, my godmother gave a cutting to my mother, and many years later, my mother did not give me a cutting, as she knew that the poor plant would not survive. Instead she grew a new plant for me and this is it.

I actually now have 2 of them ( No I did not find a green thumb and grow another one. My mum gave it to me 🙂 .). They flower beautifully each spring, always reminding me of the lovely and strong women that I have been lucky to have in my life. All daring to try a new life, in a different country, from different parts of the world.

Of course this year was a little different. I needed to see if that beautiful pink could transfer onto wool!

Solar Dyeing

With this experiment, as with most , I am going to use the process of solar dyeing.

This is basically putting your dyestuff in a glass jar and leaving it in the sun to work its magic. The beauty of living in Australia means that I do have the benefit of hot summers. If you don’t have these conditions, it does not mean you cannot try this process. You will just need to experiment with your own environments advantages and disadvantages. Leave it in a room that gets sunlight and may have great heating or try longer dyeing periods.

These experiments are only to show you what has and hasn’t worked for me, so you can pick through the information to start your own experimenting journey.

Fibre Preparation

Before dyeing you must first scour and mordant your fibre. For this particular experiment, my wool roving was mordanted in alum. For information on these processes, try this post.

Procedure

Step 1: Place your dyestuff in a heat proof bowl and add boiling water

Step2: When cool enough, transfer into your a glass jar and leave outside. I left these for a week in the hot Australian summer sun.

Step 3: Sieve your dye and add your fibre. Leave outside in the sun for 1 week. (It was summer in Australia, so was quite warm)

Step 4: Take your wool out of the jar and leave to dry completely without rinsing.

Step 5: Rinse in water baths until they are clear. As I was using roving I did not want to use running water to start it felting, so I used a few bowls of water. Always make sure you wool does not experience dramatic temperature changes. Make your water room temperature. Leave to dry