Dying With Elder

ELDER

(3rd from the right)

Materials:

1/2 teaspoon elder

1/2-teaspoon aluminum sodium sulfate

2 cups water

Silk

Procedure: First I heated the elder dye with water on a hot plate so that it was very hot but not yet boiling. Then I added the mordant and mixed them. Then I added my silk sample and let it soak in the dye bath for about fifteen minutes before removing. Then I took it out and rinsed it off and placed a heavier type of silk and piece of cotton into the dye bath to see if I would get a varying result. Then I removed the two fiber samples from the dye after about ten minutes and rinsed them off.

Analysis:

Te first silk sample that was removed from the dye bath was a deep purple nearly violet color. Yet when I placed a heavier silk and cotton sample into the dye bath it turned the samples into a completely different color even though there were no changes made to the dye bath. I’m not sure why the color changed occurred, maybe the temperature of the hot plate changed and cooled slightly, or maybe it had to do with the fiber placed in the bath that only took the blue part of the purple color and not the red part of the pigmentation, but the three sample produced came out great and different.