First adventure in dyeing!
400 g (8) unbleached cotton/linen napkins dyed with 100 g madder roots.
Top row unmordanted.
Bottom row mordanted with approx 5% aluminium acetate, microwaved on medium for 30 mins.
Madder prepared by pouring boiling water over, leaving for 2 mins, pouring off, repeating, then pouring final boiling water over and adding 6 napkins, 3 each mordanted and not, each three folder as follows: not, just scrunched; pleated lengthways then twisted like a skein and tied at the end; pleated fan-like then roughly curled and loosely tied. Left this dyebath overnight, then gave it an hour in the oven in the morning, left for the day, gave an hour in the oven in the evening, then rinsed out.
For the two remaining napkins, I put them in the poured- off water, loosely scrunched and tied. These are the napkins on the left-hand side of the photo.
There is little difference in colour between the main bath and the initial poured-off colour - maybe the poured off is very very slightly browner? But not noticeably.
The mordanted napkins are deeper and more orange, there is no yellow in the unmordanted.
Next time with this thickness of material, I need to tie much looser - there is a significant difference in pattern between each side of the cloth, and little penetration of colour into the folds.
Glad I was stuck with what to get for my sister for Christmas and remembered her gift to me from 3 years ago of a dye kit!
I think the pink ones are more her colourway, and the kind of colour I was aiming for, but the orange are a more successful dye effect. I'll wrap the pink ones but take the orange ones as a potential swap.
