I'm so excited to see the finished product with some of the projects I've been working on lately for my internship at anthro! I don't want to give all of our secrets away, but I have learned alot about a very exciting subject.
Natural dyeing is so amazing! It makes me appreciate my husband's love for chemicals and their reactions. The visual display team got together and spent a few days cutting and dyeing for our upcoming window and we learned a few tricks of our own.
After experimenting and working with purely natural dyes this week, it makes me want to run around and dye everything I can get my hands on. It feels just like the first time I got my own hot glue gun...
I have researched alot about using natural dyes this week and many of them include a strainer or a cheese cloth. Who needs those!? All you have to do is rip the cabbage up and simmer it in a pan of water. When the leaves turn a light pink and look like they have lost all of their color, you can take them out and start using the dye bath.
The interesting thing with natural dyeing is the colors that can happen by adding or changing one ingredient. For example, with red cabbage, the dye will be a grayish-purple on its own, but when you add a little bit of salt or vinegar it will turn a bright pink or a light blue!
See that tower of flat egg cartons? We cut
all of them.
By hand. After a while I had to staple cloth to my scissors and wear band aids to stop the blisters from cutting all day! Then we dyed each one and layed them out to dry. So far the count is more than 3,000!
I can't wait to put together the final design! I bet you can't wait to see it either...
You made so many of them, I'm impressed! Can't wait for the final design!
ReplyDeleteThis looks so neat! I saw a post on the Free People blog a while back about using veggies for dye, and have been wanting to try it. It'd be such a good way to use up discarded onion peels and whatnot. Do you have to put vinegar (or is it baking soda) to stabilize the dye after you boil the veggies?
ReplyDeleteYou can either soak your fabrics in water and vinegar for an hour before dyeing or add the vinegar straight to the dye. As far as I know, if you are using paper instead of fabric you don't have to add the vinegar at all!
ReplyDeleteWow! what a beautiful color you've made! and so many egg cartons!
ReplyDeleteIt will be beautiful by the time you're done! :)
Very jealous of your internship at Anthropologie! Landing a really cool internship like that is a huge accomplishment! I am in love with their displays and find myself looking at them just as much (or more!) as the clothing.
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