last week, we foraged for and dyed using grape leaves. this post details how to layer other natural colors over the grape leaf dyed fabric to create a greater range in tones.
take a look around your kitchen or vegetable garden. can you spot any fennel feathers, once-used black beans, arrant red cabbage leaves, zucchini flowers, dandelions, red clovers, almost-moldy black or raspberries, blueberries or beet peels? perfect! gather your materials and lets make a rainbow of colors! *avocado pits & peels are also a good option.
treat your kitchen and garden scraps in the same way as the grape leaves: the smaller you can rip or tear your dye materials, the better. sort each dye material into its' own glass vessel. heat enough water to cover the plant materials.
give the extraction process some time to develop. if need be, reheat your glass vessels (plant material and all) in the microwave for a few seconds.
after 24 hours has passed (or sooner if you're impatient like me), cut your grape leaf dyed fabric into test swatches. try to keep all the swatches the same size, maybe 2"x2" if possible.
dampen the fibers and put a test swatch into each vessel. let the fibers soak for a few hours, but check on them every so often and take the swatches out when you like the color.
here are my experiments:
grape leaves over-dyed using: blueberries, and onion skins
