I also emptied a jar that has been sitting in the sun for weeks with a broken up avocado pit and some fabric and thread. The pit was completely gone but I'm happy with the color and markings that developed.
"Out beyond ideas of wrongdoing and rightdoing, there is a field. I will meet you there." --Rumi
Saturday, August 21, 2010
Wrapping Trees and more about natural dyeing...
I read India Flint's article about tree wrapping on Hand Eye and decided to try it. Kaite will be keeping track of all us tree wrappers around the world on her blog . Went out early this morning and wrapped a couple of trees ( fig tree and yaupon ) with muslin. Now the waiting and watching begins. It takes a long time for anything to happen so I'll have to just forget about it for a long while.
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5 comments:
hi deanna, a good tree-wrapping morning to you, i'll post up your link as soon as i've had my coffee. you could be surprised at how soon things start to happen, i found it was only a few days before little changes appeared. nice avocado pit dye. cheers, kaite
Hi fellow tree wrapper Deanna, what good choices of trees for your wrappings. Your avocado dyeing is terrific, especially the markings from the pits. When I dyed with avocado, I only used the skin and left it for a day. Color was a very pale pink, barely noticeable. Think water is a factor in dyeing if you are not using distilled and only tap water like I do, although sometimes I do run it through a filter. Regional and world wide differences in the water create different hues of color, I think.
Ooh, super intensity on the pinks from the avocado. Lovely!
Julie
Hi there!
I work for an NGO in the Sacred Valley of Peru that connects impoverished women weavers to the textile market. Red plays a prominent role in their textiles, and they typically achieve reds by dyeing with cochnilla. Heavy rains earlier in the year have virtually wiped out cochinilla supplies in the area causing prices to skyrocket. I'm searching the internet for potential alternatives and was wondering if you could give me more information on producing red dyes with avocado. Can you use the pits as well, or do only the skins dye red? Are there issues with color-fastness.
Thanks for your time! I look forward to hearing from you.
Hi Jessica,
you did not supply your e-mail address when you left the comment and I was unable to access your profile. I have only used avocado skins and pits to dye once or twice and don't have any other info other than what I have posted. the color you will get is more pink than red. the markings you see on the cloth are the result of chopping up the pits, putting them in a jar of water for a couple of weeks and then adding the fabric to the jar. Don't know about colorfastness as I have not laundered any of them yet. If you google "dyeing fabric with avocados" you should get some good info.
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