Play silks

These are some play silks, that I dyed with natural dyes, a while ago now. It's very interesting how different fibers take color in different ways. In my experiments with natural dyes and salt or vinegar mordants I've found that wool picks up the most color, whether or not the color stays seems to depend on the dye. With cotton and cotton/hemp blends it's very difficult to achieve a strong shade. Silk is perhaps the most interesting of all. I always seem to get very pale pastel shades, with a lot of shimmer. These silks here were dyed over a year ago. They have been washed many times since and they have held there color, even the colors that wash right out of cotton and wool.

The shades of brown were dyed with black walnut hulls, the yellows are cumin, the purplish-pinks are combinations of various berries and red wine, the greens were made using chlorophyll.