Dying With Blueberries

Materials:

½ cup blueberries

3 tablespoons aluminum sodium sulfate

2 cups water

Silk

Procedure:

First I mashed up the blueberries, and then I heated them in a pot full of water on a hot plate so they were very not but not yet boiling. Then I added a mordant so the dye would stick to the fibers. Then I dipped small squares of silk into the dye bath and let it soak for about ten minutes. When done,I pulled out the silk and rinsed it off.

Analysis:

I first noticed that the dye bath was purple, but when I pulled out my two types of silk I noticed that the color was different for both. On my thin silk the color dyed was purple, but on my heavier silk it dyed it a bright blue color.

Color of Birds

There are two sources of colors in birds.  The first is from pigments and the second is from the reflection of light from the structure of the bird’s feathers.

For example with some green parrots their color comes from both, yellow pigments in their feathers that mix with blue reflecting feather structures on top, creating a green hue.

Pigment in bird’s feathers comes from three different groups that  determine how the pigment is formed.  The three groups are melanins, cartenoids and porphyrines.

Melanins occur naturally in the bird’s skin and feathers’.  Melanins can produce a variety of colors such as yellows, reds and blacks.

 When there is color in bird’s wings that means they have a greater strength and durability then if they were just plain white.  That is why many great white birds often have black or colored wing tips, because it gives them more strength. Feathers and wings of birds without any color are the weakest birds.

 Cartenoids, another source of color in birds, comes from plants.  The consumption of plants, or birds that have eaten plants, is a source of color from some birds.  For example some cardinals like the Northern Cardinal, obtains its color from plants originally.

 Cartenoid colors can also mix with other color sources, such as melanins. For example the Scarlet Tanager is a green color that comes from both cartenoid mixing with yellow malanins.

The last pigment source of color is porphyrins, which comes from the modification of amino acids within a bird. Porphyrins are what bring color to many birds such as pigeons and some owls.

The other way besides from pigment, that a bird can receive its color is from the way the light reflects on the structure of their feathers.  Such as with Blue Jays.  Most people believe that their feathers are blue from pigment, but actually if you look at the feathers from not a well lit area, you can notice that the feather also can be brown.  This is because the structure of the birds feathers are arranged in a way so that when light hits and reflects off of them, they look blue to the viewer when really the melanin pigment of the feathers is brown.

Rainbow

Homemade Dyes

 

Purple:

½ cup strawberries

½ cup raspberries

1 tablespoon aluminum sodium sulfate

2 cups water

Results: hot pink in pot, deep purple on fabric

 

Blue and Purple:

½ cup blueberries

3 tablespoons aluminum sodium sulfate

2 cups water

(boil)

Results: purple on thin silk, blue on heavy silk

 

Orange:

½ cup strawberries

½ tablespoon aluminum sodium sulfate

2 cups water

Results: dye boiled to a red color but dyed the silk orange

 

Brown:

½ cup hazelnut ground coffee

½ tablespoon aluminum sodium sulfate

2 cups water

Results: brownish khaki slightly green color

 

 

Black:

2 tablespoons extract from logwood

¼ tablespoon aluminum sodium sulfate

2 cups water

Results: black on fabric, fades to a dark tone of green

Homemade Dyes

Homemade Dyes

Purple:

½ cup strawberries ½ cup raspberries 1 tablespoon aluminum sodium sulfate 2 cups water Results: hot pink in pot, deep purple on fabric

Blue and Purple: ½ cup blueberries 3 tablespoons aluminum sodium sulfate 2 cups water (boil).

Results: purple on thin silk, blue on heavy silk

Orange: ½ cup strawberries ½ tablespoon aluminum sodium sulfate 2 cups water

Results: dye boiled to a red color but dyed the silk orange

Brown: ½ cup hazelnut ground coffee ½ tablespoon aluminum sodium sulfate 2 cups water Results: brownish khaki slightly green color

Black: 2 tablespoons extract from logwood¼ tablespoon aluminum sodium sulfate 2 cups water

Results: black on fabric, fades to a dark tone of green

Fire and Stars

There are two types of light, incandescent light (white) and light that has color.  Light that has color comes from gas excitations.  For example, sparks, neon lights and mercury vapor lamps emit colored light. Incandescent light emits only a white light.  Gas excitations have an original type of line emission spectrum, which can be detected from a flame test.

 

When the atoms of a gas or vapor are excited, by heat or electricity, their electrons move from a ground state to a higher energy level.

 

When they return to the original ground state, they emit photons that have specific energy making them easily identifiable.

The energy corresponds to specific wavelengths of light, and thus makes the specific colors of light.

 

Each element has a specific line emission spectrum that allows scientists to identify the element by the color of flame

Copper: blue flame

Lithium: red

Strontium: red

Calcium: orange

Sodium: yellow

Barium: green

 

The hottest part of a flame, core, is light blue with a temperature of 1400 °C

Outside the flame are yellow, orange, and red (the furthest part from the core)

The farther from the flame’s core the warmer the flame is.

The red portion is about 800 °C

 

Exploding fireworks produce gas, which excites the electrons.

As they return to their ground state, they emit colored light according to the chemicals used:

Copper compounds: blue

Sulfur: yellow

Barium: green

 

Light that is moving has a changing frequency that is proportional to the wavelength.  When the frequency decreases, the wavelength increases.

Visible light moves towards the red part of the spectrum that is known as the red shift. A light source moving towards the observer increases in wavelength.

 

 

By analyzing the type of light from an object and how it has changed from the red shift, scientists can see how far light has traveled.  This is called Hubble’s Law.

 

Big Bang theory: The universe is expanding and must have started as one point.  Proof: signature radiation left over.

 

The color of a star is used to identify the star because the color corresponds to the star’s surface temperature, measured in the black body radiation scale.

 

The sun and yellow stars have a temperature of 5,500 K

Red stars are 3,500 K, which is cooler then the sun.

Dark red stars 2,500 K

Blue stars 10,000-50,000K, the hottest

 

A star does not stay the same color throughout its lifecycle, because its temperature changes

Alizarin

C₁₄H₈O₄

Alizarin comes originally from madder root.  It was used as dye in counties like Egypt and Asia in the early 1500's B.c. but it wasn't until the 1800's that someone found the proper mordant or mordant(s) to make the dye insoluble and last long. Alizarin was the 1st dye to be cloned synthetically, which produces the same color at a small fraction of the cost.  

Friday

Orange

1/2 teaspoon madder

1/4 teaspoon aluminum sodium sulfate

2 cups water

2 minutes in dye: Light Orange, 10 minutes in dye: Bright Orange

Purple

1 part cupric chloride

1 part madder

1 part nickel acetate

2 cups water

5 minutes: Light pink/purple, 10 minutes: Purple

Blue and Purple

1/2 teaspoon elder

1/2 teaspoon aluminum sodium sulfate

2 cups water

Silk fabric: Purple, Cotton fabric: Blue

Light Pink

1/2 teaspoon redwood

1 teaspoon aluminum sodium sulfate

2 cups water

heat for 5 minutes

Light Orange

1/2 teaspoon redwood

1/2 teaspoon fustic yellow

heat for 5 minutes

Magenta

1 part rhamni immaturi

1 part cochineal bugs

1 part water

Results: hot pink, light purple, magenta, salmon pink

Green

2 ml Japanese seaweed

1ml aluminum sodium sulfate

1 cup water

5 minutes: light green, 20 minutes: bright green

Red Alder Bark

Red Alder dye comes from the Alnus rubra tree which can be identified by its ridged broad green tree leaves and green, brown and red hues of catkins (cone shaped) on the tree.  The red alder tree has white bark which when exposed to the air and oxygen, turns a orange red color which is used for dying.  The alder tree provides food for birds (catkins), dye (bark), and medicine for cuts (bark).

Indigo Dye

Materials: 1 tsp Indigo, 2 tsp Reducing agent, 1 Cup ammonia

The color of the Indigo dye first appeared green, then when stirred it turned dark blue.

Green indigo is water soluble and the blue form of indigo is water insoluble.

Procedure: Dip cotton sample in dye and let dry. Re-dip later for a darker color.

Flowers identified in the park:

1. Prairie Smoke

2. Quaking Grass

3. Oriental Onions

4. Little Leaf Blue Star

5. Cherry Sage

6. Mediterranean Sea Holly

7. Meadow Sage Salvia

Ferric Wood Dye

Materials: 2 tablespoon of Ferric Wood, 1 tablespoon of Mordant, 1 quart of water

Procedure: 1. Soak silk in water

     2. Prepare dye bath

     3. Add alum* Mordant, soak for 2-4 minutes

     4. Remove silk from dye bath

     5.  Rinse off with cold water

*1st Mordant, Alum (aluminum potassium sulfate),  2nd Iron (Ferric Sulfate)

Results: The silk dyed with the ferric wood dye and alum turned out yellow, the silk dyed with the ferric wood dye and iron turned out brown