Purple Bison

I started this piece several years ago, click here, I'll have to search the archives to find the first post on this piece. I found it in a drawer last night and decided it needed finishing!

Digital print on brown craft paper (paper bag actually)

Logwood dyed silk chiffon

Linen and hemp threads dyed with natural dyes

8x10 inches

Windmill

Once a familiar site here on the prairie once numbering in the thousands they have all but vanished now.

I love how the fabric buttons look being back lit like this.

Updated Zine

I just updated The Natural Surfaces Zine with indigo dyeing instructions, I'll try to get more video uploaded to youtube on how to use a fermentation vat, now that my computer is working once again, in the near future. http://thenaturalsurface.blogspot.com/ The instructions are for the traditional indigo lye vat (NOTE you can substitute soda ash for the lye which is what I highly recommend).

Basic Natural Dyeing Safety

Dye Safety
Copyright 2003
Kimberly Baxter Packwood

Never assume that because it’s a natural dye that it’s safe!

Many people have allergies to grasses, weeds, flowers and trees.

IF you are a highly sensitive/allergic person then be sure of what you are dyeing WITH before dyeing.

IF you have severe allergies consult with your doctor prior to dyeing with grasses, flowers, tree parts, or any unknown or known weed.

Always work in an area that is designated for studio/dye work.

Never use dye materials, mordants or other dyestuffs in your designated cooking areas!

Use only dedicated dye equipment that is used for dyeing/surface design only. Never use this equipment for cooking food for human consumption.

Use a high quality respirator when handling dye extracts and mordants.

Work in an adequately ventilated area.

Stirring the Indigo Fermentation Vat

Here you can see the madder root, which has yet to break down, under the indigo water's surface the water has a blue foam on the top but has not turned a dark blue yet. This vat requires more fermentation time before it will become usable.

The vat will start out dark blue color you will need to beat air into the vat to get it to reduce at this time. Beating the indigo fermentation vat seems to defy all logic when it comes to indigo dyeing - where you are constantly being told to NOT introduce Oxygen into the vat, this is the one time you get to stir the dickens out of your indigo vat and it results in great colors!

Here the color is beginning to turn a dark pea green color, it needs further reduction so keep stirring until it turns yellow.

Indigo Fermentation Vat

Natural Indigo Fermentation Vat
Copyright 2006
Kimberly Baxter Packwood



Natural Indigo Fermentation Vat Mini-Vat Instructions

1.0 ounce Natural Indigo Ground
0.5 ounce Madder Root cut into fine pieces
0.5 ounce Bran (Wheat works best, Oat will also work)
3.0 ounce Soda Ash
Stainless Steel, or Enamel, Pot. A plastic bucket may be substituted for the pot, be sure that has a tight fitting lid.

Place warm water, not boiling, into pot, preferably one that holds more than 2 gallons of water.

WARNING: Wear respirator when working with ground indigo, anything in powdered form will float easily in the air making it easily inhaled. This is not good for your lungs!

WARINGING: Soda Ash is highly caustic, wear gloves and dust mask when handling soda ash. Avoid contact with skin.

Dissolve ground indigo in warm tap water, enough to cover and make a rough paste.

Note: The ground Indigo will float at the top of the vat if just thrown into the water make your paste first. The indigo at this point is not completely dissolved, once introduced to the vat; it will dissolve after a few days in the vat.

Add madder root, bran, and soda ash to the warm water stir well then add indigo paste to the vat. Cover, but not tightly, and apply heat source.

Stir the pot once, or twice, a day during the reduction period with one gentle stir. If you stir the vat too often this will introduce Oxygen into the vat.

Depending on where you live, i.e., temperature and humidity levels, the vat can take anywhere from 5 – 10 days to become viable. By viable I mean ready to dye fibers.

Fermentation vats need to be kept warm while reducing. I keep my vat, a stainless steel pot that is covered with a lid, in my studio oven (gas) where the pilot light is continuously on, about 98 degrees F.

The vat needs to be kept at body temperature during the reduction phase.

If you do not have a dedicated oven, I recommend using either a heating pad, with a temperature control knob, or a high quality fish tank heater with digital temperature controls.

Chopped Madder Root

Wheat Bran

Madder Root added to warm water in bucket. Initially it floats at the top of the water’s surface.

The Bran now added to the vat. The bran floats on top of the madder root until they have been sufficiently stirred together, eventually sinking to the bottom of the vat.

Soda Ash has now been added to the vat. The vat has a foamy look from the bubbling action of the soda ash. The mixture has been blended, to ensure that the soda ash does not solidify on the bottom of the bucket.

WARNING: Always add your acids and bases to water, never the other way around! Doing so can result in harmful reactions that can cause injury.

Natural Indigo added to the vat. The Madder and Bran are still floating at or near the waters surface. The indigo while made into a paste, does not want to dissolve in the water as you can see from the globs hanging on the sides of the bucket.

Indigo Dyeing Safety Instructions

Indigo Vat Safety Instructions

DO NOT TOUCH YOUR FACE OR EYES WHEN HANDLING LYE, SODA ASH, THIOX, OR ANY CHEMICAL!!!

Lye Handling Instructions
NEVER add water to Lye (Sodium hydroxide). You will create a dangerous reaction doing so. ALWAYS add your Lye (Sodium hydroxide) to “cold” water.

Once the Lye is added to the “cold” water the water will become very hot from the chemical reaction! This reaction will cause your utensils and vat container to become hot. Have hot pads or insulated gloves for handling hot equipment.

Make sure that your container can withstand high temperatures.

Read safety instructions that came with your Lye (Sodium hydroxide).

Lye (Sodium Hydroxide) is dangerous! Extreme caution must be used when handling lye (Sodium hydroxide). Lye (Sodium hydroxide) will cause serious burns to the skin, eyes and mucous membranes.

A respirator is required when handling lye(Sodium hydroxide) products as inhalation of the fumes can cause serious burns to the nose and mouth (mucous membranes)

Wear protective gloves, such as latex or nitrile gloves, when handling lye (Sodium hydroxide). Lye (Sodium hydroxide) can cause serious burns to the skin, especially if your skin is moist! The lye (Sodium hydroxide) will start reacting with the moisture on your skin immediately, causing serious burns.

NOTE: Make sure that your gloves are proper fitting, and not too lose, as an ill fitted glove can lead to accidents.

Wear safety goggles/glasses when handling lye (Sodium hydroxide)! This is to prevent any of the lye liquid/fumes from entering the eyes.

NOTE: Do not touch your face, eyes, or ears when handling lye (Sodium hydroxide) products!

Wash your hands thoroughly for five minutes, and upper arms, after working with lye (Sodium hydroxide). You want to make sure that your hands are completely free of chemical before touching any other parts of your body to prevent burns.

Do NOT use with aluminum or cheap stainless steel containers or utensils. Do NOT put lye into an a cast iron pot!

FIRST AID: wash burned area with cool water for 15-20 minutes. Call or seek emergency help for burns. Seek medical attention immediately.

If swallowed seek medical attention immediately. Do NOT induce vomiting!!!

Keep Lye (Sodium hydroxide) away from children and small pets.

IF a spill should occur sweep of lye and dispose of down the sink drain with copious amounts of cold water.

This ALSO applies to Thiox, Indigo extract, Soda Ash or any mordant, assist, or chemical when you are working in the studio.

Thiox will burn your skin wash immediately with water.

Work in a well ventilated area, I prefer to work out of doors with the wind blowing away from me.

Wear a respirator when working with Natural Dye Extracts, Mordants, and Dye Assists

DO NOT PUT WATER INTO YOUR THIOX POWDER AS THIS CAN BE DANGEROUS CREATING A TOXIC CLOUD OF GAS!!!

Rather using a studio dedicated teaspoon place your thiox into the indigo vat.

Indigo Dyeing using a Lye or Soda Ash vat

Dye Materials Needed

1 ounce Indigo extract or Indigo chunks
1 cup Soda Ash or Lye (I HIGLY recommend using Soda Ash NOT Lye~!)
2 Tablespoons Thiourea dioxide or Thiox
Water

Equipment needed:

Respirator – you only get one set of lungs! Wear a respirator when handling dye powders, mordants, and dye assists~!
Gloves – wear heavy duty kitchen or dyeing gloves when handling the indigo ingredients (See safety Instructions Below)
Stock Pot 18 quarts or bigger, can be Stainless Steel or Enamel the indigo vat will react with aluminum so I don’t recommend using aluminum pots for creating the vat.
Scale for weighing dyes and chemicals – again studio dedicated!
Measuring spoons, measuring cups, wisk for stirring
Jar – wide mouth pint jar for making indigo paste
Spoon, studio dedicated, for stirring the vat
Tongs for retrieving your fabrics, fibers, etc.
Lingerie bag for small items you wish to find in the vat again the bag makes them easier to retrieve
Water for your vat, rinsing, and for oxidizing
Vinegar – helps to restore the pH balance of wool and silk fibers/fabrics
pH papers/strips for testing the pH of your vat.
Heat source
Clothesline for hanging fabrics onto to help fabric oxidize faster.




Natural Indigo Chemical Reduction Mini-Vat Instructions:

1. READ Safety Instructions before Beginning the Indigo Vat!

2. Fill your vat container with water you don’t need to heat the vat at this point. ALLOW TO SIT OVERNIGHT, doing this allows the oxygen to dissipate from the vat.

3. Place 1 ounce Natural Indigo powder (if you are working with hard chunk indigo it will have to be ground down first) into a suitable container.

4. Add just enough hot water until you get a paste – preferably lump free (I use a dedicated wide mouth pint jar for this solution.

5. Add soda ash or lye to the vat water - NEVER add water to your soda ash or lye ALWAYS add the soda ash or lye to the water!!!


6. Slowly add the indigo paste to the vat solution

7. Stir to dissolve NOTE this may take quite a bit of stirring, heating the vat at this point also helps with dissolving the paste faster.

8. Next add thiox to the vat solution stir very little so as to avoid adding Oxygen to the vat.

9. DO NOT BOIL YOUR VAT as this will cause bubble formation and will introduce Oxygen into the vat.

10. REMOVE HEAT after 30 minutes

11. Cover vat and allow to sit until reduction is complete.

12. Reduction is complete when your vat turns a yellow to yellowish pea green color.

13. If your vat is still blue after 24 hours then you have too much Oxygen in your vat add thiox to the vat in small increments, a few grains of thiox at a time, to further reduce the vat.

14. If you reduce the vat too far then gently stir the vat with one or two swirls of the spoon and allow to sit for 30 minutes.

15. You will need to test the pH of the vat to see if the pH is correct

16. pH should be 10.0 – 11.5
· cottons 11.0-11.5
· wool and silk 10.5-11.0 preferably closer to 10.5

17. Adjust pH by adding small amounts, half teaspoon at a time, of soda ash to your vat, even is you created a lye vat do NOT add more lye to the vat at this point.

Wedding Dress

Awning

Pale Horse the Prophecy -

1996

Paint on Canvas 36x48

I was going to add more paint to the surface but have since decided on some loose running stitches and some attachments. I started this piece in 1996 it's paint on canvas I've finally decided on how I want to stitch the piece and what I'd like to attach to the surface. I'll have John build me a frame for the piece when I'm done

Summer in Iowa

About Selling Natural Dyes

Seems that there is some confusion or maybe some outright shit stirring (some folks just can't seem to help themselves) I'm not quite sure... but FYI I quit selling Natural Dyes, etc., two years ago.

About two years ago I simply grew tired of filling little bottles with natural dye materials, labeling them, shipping them out and making zero profit! Couple that with the fact that the sole North American supplier of Natural Dyes, Roger at Alliance Imports, passed away unexpectedly in March of 2006, the source for natural dyes dried up. For a moment we considered expanding and getting into the import export business. After much thought I decided to take this as a cue and exhausted from filling jars and trying to dye fabric at the same time, I bowed out of the industry.

So where are the Natural Dyes??? Try Google it's your friend!

Kimberly

Blue Poppies WIP

Blue Poppies WIP - it's missing something I'm just now sure what at the moment!

4x6 inches

Painted Timtex, Indigo dyed Silk Organza and Crepe

Machine Embroidered

AuriFil Threads

Solar Dyeing

I started by placing an ounce of dye materials into a clean quart jar (old spagetti sauce jars)

Filled the jars with vodka or everclear until the dye materials are covered, placed lid on jar and allowed to sit overnight.

Placed alum mordanted silk fat quarters into each jar, filled with distilled water, placed lid back onto jar and placed the jars in a sunny location. Here you can see the dye liquid wick up the fabric.

Leave in sun for up to three weeks, check to make sure that mold isn't growing on your fabrics. 2004

Mark Making with Nature Book on CDROM

Mark Making with Nature: Surface Design with Natural Dyes on CDROM now available in my shop!

Tree of Life No. 1 and No. 2

Tree of Life No. 2

3 x 3.5 inches
Commecial Cloth
Machine Embroidered
AuriFil Threads
Timtex Core

www.etsy.com/view_listing.php?listing_id=27537314


Tree of Life No. 1

3 x 3.5 inches
Commecial Cloth
Machine Embroidered
AuriFil Threads
Timtex Core

www.etsy.com/view_listing.php?listing_id=27537097

Local Inspiration

How to Scour Cotton Cloth

Scouring Fabric

Kimberly Baxter Packwood © 2001

When working with any mordant or dye powder always wear a respirator with fresh filters.

NOTE: Any dyeing equipment used in natural dyeing, should never ever be used or reused for the preparation, storage or cooking of food or beverages.

What Scouring Does:

Scouring fabric is easy and will ensure excellent dye uptake every time.

Scouring is a two step process, both steps must be followed if you wish to acquire the greatest depth of color.

Scouring fabric removes the grease, dust, dirt and grime that fabrics encountered during the manufacturing process and transit.

How to Scour Your Fabric:

Simply wash your fabric, this includes PFD fabric, in the washing machine in hot water with Soda Ash. Do not add any fabric softeners to the wash. If you must dry your fabric do so without any fabric softener sheets
NOTE: Fabric softeners interfere with both natural and synthetic dye uptake.
Using an large enamel or stainless steel pot, fill the pot at least half full and place one ounce of soda ash into the pot per pound of cotton or linen fabric/fiber.
Place fabric into water, swish it around using a stainless steel spoon.

Bring water to a boil!!!

Adjust heat to a low boil/hard simmer and allow to boil for two hours. stir the fabric every 15 minutes or so t make sure that the fabric is being adequately scoured

After two hours remove from heat source, allow fabric to cool down until the fabric is at room temperature.

Remove the fabric from the water and rinse.

NOTE: If the water is brown or grey replace the water & soda ash mixture with fresh water and soda ash and re-scour the fabric, it is not clean yet. repeat this process until the fabric rinses clean and the scour water is only mildly dirty.

Your fabric is now ready to be Mordanted & Dyed!

Scouring PFD Cotton Fabric

Once again it is time to point out the importance of proper fabric preparation when dyeing with natural dyes. I don't say this to be rude but rather to save you much time and effort when dyeing cotton with natural dyes.

Q. Do I have to scour my PFD, Prepared for Dyeing, Fabrics?

A. YES you must scour PFD fabric before mordnating and dyeing with natural dyes, I go as far as even washing BEFORE I scour my fabric to ensure that the dressing oils, all fabrics receive these it's to keep the dust down when the fabric is rolled onto bolts, tubes, etc.. I have scouring instructions on my website and video on youtube. The scouring process is so very important with cellulosic fibers as it helps to force the fibers open before the mordanting and dyeing steps. Scouring ensures that your fabric will hold maximum natural dye molecules and helps to achieve truer colors.

Q. is your water hard or treated? Water quality is very important regarding the final dye color out come. Hard water tends to supress most dye molecules (exception is weld it becomes more intense).

Q. Which plants do you plan to dye with? Some plants do not yield permanent color so it is important to know this before you start a project, as depending on your plans for the fabric you may not be able to over dye at a later date if your colors fade.

NOTE: Also cotton fabrics don't take certain natural dye colors no matter what you do to the fabric but silk and wool fabrics will suck the color up like no tomorrow.

Why Should I Scour PFD Cotton Fabric

Once again it is time to point out the importance of proper fabric preparation when dyeing with natural dyes. I don't say this to be rude but rather to save you much time, effort, and disappointment when dyeing cotton with natural dyes.

Q. Do I have to scour my PFD, Prepared for Dyeing, Fabrics?

A. YES you must scour PFD fabric before mordnating and dyeing with natural dyes, I go as far as even washing BEFORE I scour my fabric to ensure that the dressing oils, all fabrics receive these it's to keep the dust down when the fabric is rolled onto bolts, tubes, etc.. I have scouring instructions on my website and video on youtube. The scouring process is so very important with cellulosic fibers as it helps to force the fibers open before the mordanting and dyeing steps. Scouring ensures that your fabric will hold maximum natural dye molecules and helps to achieve truer colors.

Q. is your water hard or treated? Water quality is very important regarding the final dye color out come. Hard water tends to supress most dye molecules (exception is weld it becomes more intense).

Q. Which plants do you plan to dye with? Some plants do not yield permanent color so it is important to know this before you start a project, as depending on your plans for the fabric you may not be able to over dye at a later date if your colors fade.

NOTE: Also cotton fabrics don't take certain natural dye colors no matter what you do to the fabric but silk and wool fabrics will suck the color up like no tomorrow.

Scouring PFD Fabrics

Once again it is time to point out the importance of proper fabric preparation when dyeing with natural dyes. I don't say this to be rude but rather to save you much time and effort when dyeing cotton with natural dyes.

Q. Do I have to scour my PFD, Prepared for Dyeing, Fabrics?

A. YES you must scour PFD fabric before mordnating and dyeing with natural dyes, I go as far as even washing BEFORE I scour my fabric to ensure that the dressing oils, all fabrics receive these it's to keep the dust down when the fabric is rolled onto bolts, tubes, etc.. I have scouring instructions on my website and video on youtube. The scouring process is so very important with cellulosic fibers as it helps to force the fibers open before the mordanting and dyeing steps. Scouring ensures that your fabric will hold maximum natural dye molecules and helps to achieve truer colors.

Q. is your water hard or treated? Water quality is very important regarding the final dye color out come. Hard water tends to supress most dye molecules (exception is weld it becomes more intense).

Q. Which plants do you plan to dye with? Some plants do not yield permanent color so it is important to know this before you start a project, as depending on your plans for the fabric you may not be able to over dye at a later date if your colors fade.

NOTE: Also cotton fabrics don't take certain natural dye colors no matter what you do to the fabric but silk and wool fabrics will suck the color up like no tomorrow.

Compost WIP

Each piece of fabric was dyed using natural dyes, the pink was cochineal, blue was indigo, pale yellow was weld. The caramel or beige piece has already been compost dyed once but never did a whole lot for me so it's going into the pile again. I did this once before only with indigo, rust and tannin. I'm not sure how this will look it'll either be a go or a bust but first I need to add more stuff to the surface for textures, resists, and the like. This is a combination of both hand and machine stitching.

Angel

Angel eagerly anticipating something, anything, just end the boredom!!!

White Peony