Sunday 1 August 2010

brilliant photo, but take the instructions with a hit of salt




















found this at EasyGreenLiving
caught up in a google alert for eco dyes
it's a fabulous photograph
but if you follow the instructions for dyeing cloth
you might just find yourself boiling away the colour
and their suggestive for a 'fixative' made up of half a cup of salt to 8 cups of water
has me nearly fainting

on the other hand, they suggest that saffron
yields blue-green

i'm curious about that...

7 comments:

  1. I don't think I've ever seen raspberries that big before! :-D

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  2. Hmmmm. Once I tried beautiful richly wine colored Tartan cherries. I followed a receipe much like the one given. I got a deep army green....boy was I disappointed...it was 1970...not a popular color.

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  3. it is amazing how much information is on the internet. and how much of it is not true. i think it happens so quick, we forget that persistence is required to verify anything. here's to that!

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  4. We picked 30 pounds of raspberries last weekend, and pick every night in our patch. I'm still waiting for the library to get a copy of your book from the Seattle library. Getting impatient...I want to try eco dyes on paper.

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  5. lucky you, Leslie...but i'd be EATING the raspberries.
    and as to paper? oh yes, good stuff happens.

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  6. My saffron will be flowering in a couple of months time. I'll try it and get back to you. It would be nice to have a use for the petals. They are so lovely, but just get thrown out once the saffron stigmae are harvested.

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  7. that's probably it!! saffron stamens yield bright orange yellow but quite a few blue/purple flowers will give blue-green colours when heated

    and it simply didn't occur to me that they might actually be using the petals!

    thanks for the memory prompt, Susan.

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