Natural Plant Dyeing

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The European birch (Betula pen-
dula,‘-formerly B. olba) is a pop-
ular tree in many-northern coun-
tries. Its leaves yield a creamy
yellow when used with alum as
q mordant. ‘,
I ’ >
P. W. Grace
nian’s day at the open-air museum, IVIm-: copper kettle on the stove. When the ’
herget. X0x I was to experience a second water :was lukewarm I added soap flakes
surprise concerning home-dyed linen. On and some &%dered sodium carbonate.
:I tnhlr in one of the old log cabins was a
display of tablecloths, all woven in ‘damask
When it all mid dissolved I added my
skeins of unwashed and unbleached linen, i
and 111ade l).y wo111e11 living in the area. stirred often with a wooclen spade and let
;\I1 the cloths but one were woven in it slo?vly come to a boil. After an hour of ‘.I: ., .
natural and/or blenched linen. The escep- boiling and frequent stirring, I plungcd,zt.
tion xas woven with a natural warp and. the skeins directly from the hot bath in’to ‘!. .,
:t soft green weft. ;i zinc tub containing Sold well water. The ’
.
.’ It was a rainy day but, in spite of the
sparse- light eoming -through- the small,green
color developed while the yarn was L
sti.l] il-1 .t]le cold. mnter-i-~tEi~zi~c-t~b;‘!- .-_ .- ._ ~Z:ZL
ivindows, the interplay of light on all ‘the Anna’s story inspired ‘me to do some ,
_ tablecloths was magnificent, and the green vq&hle dyeing, using either an un- 1
nne \v:lS particularly outstanding. 1,ater in tinned copper kettle, or an enamel pot
c G&d&t, I visited the woman, Anna-‘Spar- with :I Iayer of copper coins -in the bot- 1
ring, who had woven the tablecloth .which, tom, or by ‘adding copper sulfate at the
some years before, had earned her the ‘end of the dyeing, in each case using- a
silvri medal at the National Country zin,c pail for the first rinse water. Some-
Fair. She was kind enough.to tell me how, tinlcs no clinn~e was vis;ble, sometimes
’ she had produced the green color:
the color turned lighter and sometimes the
“I put \vell *water int: an untinned
e
color changed into a’ darker -shade. +
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