My manatee pal has taken me back to natural dyeing. I haven't worked with natural dyes in a while and forgot how interesting the colors and the process are. Not to mention much safer for the environment than commercial pigments.
I then moved onto black beans as I wanted to get a blue color. I soaked the black beans in a plastic tub over night, stirring whenever possible. Used a good amount of water as beans absorb quite a lot. Used alum mordant. Soaked the fabric for 4 hours in 3 tbsp. alum, 2 tbsp. cream of tartar and 1 gal. of water. I'm not sure of these measurements, and maybe that's why I didn't get the exact color I wanted... but that's part of the magic of natural dyes. Both fabrics are cotton, but the fabric on the left, which has a tighter weave, seemed to achieve more of a blueish purple while the other is more of a reddish purple. The picture doesn't show well the different veins and hints of light blue and grey running through it. I am happy with the results, even though I didn't get blue per se.
Did a little over dye on a swatch of commercial fabric also. For details on these two dyeing methods, shoot me an email.
On the bookshelf...
Read Carl Hiaasen's Flush. Being a children's librarian, I have to read kid's books in order to provide reader's advisory services. But I don't have to read them, I want to. Most children's authors are good writers. They have to be. Because kids can smell a stink bomb a mile away. Children's writers have to grab you in the first page or two or they are toast. I enjoyed Flush and I like Hiaasen's writing style for kids. His books take place in Florida, and have an environmental theme, and goodness knows if any state needs environmental awareness, it's Florida. This is the story of a couple of kids who go up against a nasty casino boat owner who is dumping his boat's waste into the sea. Likable characters and good story.
