#hand dye

What is your life? For you are a mist that appears for a little time and then vanishes. —James 4:14

While foraging this dayflower earlier in the year, I noticed it leaving stains on everything. And when I soaked it while cleaning it for salads, it left a faint blue color in the water.

When I researched its use as a dye plant I found that in Japan, it's been used in woodblock prints and other traditional art forms since the 18th century. The dye, known as "aigami" or "aobana," is extracted from the petals and can appear bluish-gray, greenish-yellow, or tan depending on its state of preservation.

Dayflower blue fades to a greenish-yellow when exposed to sunlight, which is why it was eventually replaced by the more stable Prussian blue.

I’m not sure what I did, but when I experimented today I came up with a light purple!

I thought that the patch had dried up during early August, when what had been a fairly wet year turned dry, but shortly after the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary the temperatures became more mild and we began to get rain again. Which brought several of my foraging plants back to life for mezi matičkama—including the Asiatic dayflower. I decided to use it as a dye for the little amulet bag I am making to hold dried herbs gathered during this Marian time period, since blue is the color most associated with her. Even though I ended up with a purple it works for the bag because I based my color choices for the cross on a Polish Our Lady of Herbs postcard.

I decided to use a method called tataki-zomé which presses flowers directly into the fabric rather than using a dye bath. However, I used a method from eco printing first and steamed the flowers and fabric first, softening both.

Then I put the fabric between two pieces of paper and pressed the flowers into the fabric. I loved all the splotches of color, including a little yellow here and there.

The plant adds some positive symbolism to the bag. The asiatic dayflower blooms for only a single day before fading. This ephemeral quality can serve as a potent reminder of the brevity of human life and the call to live each day in faith.

Like many wildflowers, the asiatic dayflower is often found in humble, overlooked places, such as roadsides or ditches. For this piece the dayflower will represent Mary’s humility.

The restaurant I work at buys lettuce that comes with little bags of cabbage that just get thrown away, so they let me take home the few we had tonight. This is my process so far:

So I got out my dyeing pot and my yarn. I heated up some water while I dumped by cabbage into the pot. Then it was time to simmer!

Within minutes the water was changing color

I thought this was cool but I decided to simmer for another half hour before straining (though I could have simmered for even longer to get all the color).

At this point I added some salt because I heard this helps colors last and I decided on a whim to add baking soda to make it blue instead of purple (if you want a pink you can add vinegar instead!)

And now - Yarn!

The blue in the pot is very vibrant but the yarn is currently a sad blue/green. So for now, it will be sitting in the pot covered until tomorrow morning to soak up as much color as possible.

MYNTH by Lynn

Hypnos Part 1: Illusion 

mynthshop.etsy.com

LGBTQ new business owner trying to pay off student debt. :’)