Mary Ostler

Experimenting with Purple Heart dye. Having collected a bunch of wood sawdust, I decided to try making a usable dye from purple heart.

I first separated the sawdust into two piles.

The first pile I left steeping on the stove making a dark reddish tea.

Many more pictures after the jump

The other pile I put into a container of isopropanol. (other bottle is walnut… no color extraction happened once the silt settled down)

Half of my samples I soaked in a Alum solution for 90 minutes. The other set was left alone.

An Alum sample soaking for 24hr in the tea solution

I was very excited to find the alum/tea sample turn a great sage green. I loved this color, but alas… as the sample dried the cotton turned purple.

I guess I tied the sample a little to tight, as there was sections of the cotton that didn’t seem to take the dye well. Back in the bath it went.

The non Alum sample after it was removed from the tea. Lighter shade of green than the mordant sample. It turned to a lighter brighter color of purple.

Final results from the tests (top to bottom)

Large sample of non-Alum steeped in the tea for 1hr. I threw it back in the pot, and will let it steep for a few days.

Non-Alum 24hr tea bath

Alum 24hr tea bath

Non-alum 24hr alcohol bath

alum 24hr alcohol bath

Non-dyed cotton

The alchol dye baths left very soft purple colors. I much prefer the dark purple of the Alum 24hr tea bath. Still wish it stayed that fantastic green color.