Mudme Natural-Dyed Scarf

Mudme Natural Dyed Scarf

Mudme is a Thai technique for making great multi-colored tiedyes, by coloring bound objects which are then removed.  You can see I used a roundish shaped object (a rock) for the tie on this one, and instead of the traditional multi center, I used a soy wax resist to keep the white silk.  It is an imperfect process, and that is what makes this work so very intriguing.  Each scarf is a work of art, unlike any other.  There are so many uncontrollable variables which are interdependent.  For instance, the Madder Root dyestuff I was using had been reheated several times and was almost dust and twigs in the bottom of the pot when I sat it outside.  Then it rained and I thought for sure I'd get pale tones because the root was both exhausted and diluted.  But no.  You never know.  This one came out bright and just the color of fresh salmon.  Was it because oak flowers had fallen in?  Who knows!  There is a huge amount of serendipity in the process, and that's fun!

Silk, hand-dyed with natural madder root using vegan soy wax resist in a nontraditional mudme technique.  This scarf will be for sale at Oklahoma Food Coop and perhaps on etsy.  To buy it you can notify me by email.  $18 and that's a bargain!

Sanskrit Gibberish Scarf

Soy Batik Silk Scarf

I can't write in sanskrit, so I just scribbled something that I thought seemed a little bit like sanskrit when I was doing the soy wax batik resist for this scarf.  Here's sort of a how-to:  Start with a silk scarf and prewash it.  I like to give mine a strong scrub in the washer, but avoid soap or detergent.  Let it dry flat or hanging.  Then it is ready for the resist.  "Resist" is a term used for making part of the fabric where it won't soak up any color.  You melt soy wax and apply it to the scarf.  Where ever the wax soaks in, it will keep the fibers from taking any color.  Next, apply alum.  I keep a batch of alum made up for this purpose and made mine a year ago, so I don't recall the recipe.  It can be looked-up online.  Allow your article to dry in the air.  You can see already that this process takes several days.  The next day, place your scarf in the dyepot.  For Rose Madder as in this one, I made up a dye batch several days ago.  I happened to leave it under the roof dripline and it got some rainwater in it.  Every item and every dyebath is different, so there is always a huge range of possibilities .... all of which are uncontrollable.... when you do this.  You can gently and slowly heat Rose Madder Root dye bath, but don't let it boil.  It should steam and simmer but not boil.  Boiling is very bad for silk.  When you've achieved the color you like, turn off the heat.  Next day it will have cooled, and you can squeeze the dye out of the scarf and hang up the scarf some place on a towel where it can get bone-dry.

  

By now, you're going to start seeing clumps of soy wax flaking off, but that is OK.  Now, for the ethical question:  Do you wash it in the washer in a lingerie bag, or hand wash it in the sink?  Either way, use hot water of about 140 degrees to melt the wax.  Choose to do this in the drain you would like to stopp upp.  I like to alternate, hoping that there's enough routine family traffic in those drains to avoid a bad plugging.  Allow your silk scarf to dry completely.  There are two alternative methods for the step of ironing away the remaining soy wax.  You could place the scarf between layers of tissue paper (white.... not purple) and iron on the silk setting.  Or you could gum up your iron anyway by not using paper to absorb the wax.  I use the latter method (having taken a vow of ironinglessness many years ago which I have faithfully kept).  But if you actually use your iron like an ironing person, then don't be like me.  Otherwise your spouse will have strange blobs of what only you know is soy wax on his shirt, and you'll feel remoreseful but never admit you done it.  This code of silence can damage even the strongest love----  I know.  Four husbands and I am still making mistakes.

Now your scarf should be colorfast, clean and ready to wear for some quirky adventure..... geocaching?  Time travel?  Visiting a client in jail?  Probably best not to wear such a scarf to jail, as it would make a fine hostage leash if things went badly.

This scarf is for sale, $18 and can be purchased by emailing ktibbits@lrec.org .  It will probably be available thru Oklahoma Food Cooperative and on etsy soon, so you might look for it in one of my shops by clicking on one of the images in the righthand margin of this blog page.

Adventures in Natural Dye Methods - Rose Madder Scarf

Silk Charmeuse Scarf

Soy Wax Resist Batik,

Hand-Dyed in Natural Rose Madder

Oklahoma Food Coop is full of fun people, and this month among my co-op orders was a request for natural-dyed bamboo socks.  I've dyed bamboo, and it is my favorite type of sock because these socks wick better than acrylic but have the same level of softness.  Like cotton, only better.  So, I was up for the challenge to create hand-dyed socks using Madder Roots.  Trouble is, every fiber takes dye differently, and with natural dyes the results vary from wildly unpredictable to extremely unpredictable.  The socks made from the same batch of madder roots were a softer pinky salmon in final colour.  I had hoped to list this scarf earlier during co-op's order cycle, but with taxes and all I just tossed it into the Madder Root for an experiment.

Silk scarves are tough for a couple of reasons.  Long skinny things don't wash by machine very easily.  Um, silk hardly is machine washable at all because silk is delicate.  It must not get too hot in the natural dye batch, which has to simmer but not boil over 2 hours in a process that takes about 24 hours from start to finish.  Add batik wax, and that's not only slow and likely to give a resist failure... but also clog the plumbing with wax.

Those are just some of the reasons that I was so pleased to produce this first natural dyed scarf from madder root and soy wax.  It has a delightfully uneven shadowy color tone, and the wax held up fine.  (No comment on the plumbing.  I'm the plumber these days my own self.)

This gorgeous silk scarf will be for sale in time for Mother's Day on Island Retreat... click any item in the Island Retreat Etsy gallery to see everything there.  It will be posted in a few days, or call me for direct purchase 918 797 5016, about $18. 

Madder Root is a natural plant root.  It doesn't seem to be indigenous as a Cherokee dye plant... Cherokees used a different root which is rare and sacred with a beautiful flower.  I don't dye with the Cherokee red plant because it is reputed to be a cancer remedy and I think it should be preserved in the wild for this more important purpose.  Dyeing clothing and accessories takes plenty of roots, unlike dyeing basket reed which takes far less wild flower medicine plant roots.  I like Madder because they say you can twist the shade depending upon what you add to the roots.  And I've heard it does not require a mordant.  I use Alum to presoak and Cream of Tartar to balance the PH so the molecules form a chemical bond.  You may have Madder Root in your paintbox, for it is the precursor to Alizarin Crimson... my favorite red in oils.

Today, Madder isn't used because analine dyes have taken the place of these older colors.  I love it because I know it is a part of the color rainbow of centuries past.  Its use dates back to the Pakistan area B.C. and is common widely around the world as recently as the 1900s.  How nice to know that women in Chinese silk wore this color for more than a thousand years!