Color Quest Friends - Looks like I calculated the 100% Sappanwood incorrectly against the weight of fiber (WOF) in this video (thank you, BJ, for pointing it out!). Based on the WOF I wanted to dye at 100% (55g), I should have used 55g of Sappanwood sawdust. I was off by a decimal point here, so I actually made a 10% Sappanwood dye instead of 100%. Might account for the lighter results in the modified colors 😊 Watch for a new video in the coming days to address WOF and test this again 💕
@@MargaretByrdColorQuest Hi Margaret! this recipe is described on the book 天工開物 tian gong kai wu. Sappanwood is a common Chinese dye used for red and pinksh tones. Usually as a direct dye or with alum or green vitriol for silk and ramie.
@@yin_xing Thank you for sharing about 天工開物 tian gong kai wu. It sounds like a remarkable resource for traditional natural crafts. I love using ferrous sulfate (green vitriol) to subdue colors and this purplish hue from this video added a nice complement to the palette. Would be wonderful to see what colors you achieved ❤️
@@MargaretByrdColorQuest hi! The colors are from the red family color. In traditional chinese pink and orange was a kind of red hue. Some of the colors are 赤 chi, 葡萄情 putaoqing and 烏紅 wu hong. There's no exact correlation to English, not that I've known. Keep up the good channel 😃! Thanks for your interest
@@yin_xing How amazing to imagine colors that are unique to a particular language. I often wonder how we all experience color, but I'm certain it is a unique to each individual and the environment. What a beautiful thought 🤎
Hi Deborah - yes, fiber should always be wet before putting it into a dye or mordant bath. If possible, soaking it in water for 1+ hour is a great habit to start.
Hi, this is Verónica from Argentina. I love your job! I"m learning so much from you! Thank you very very much!! I'm very new at this and I would like to make you a couple of questions. I thought calcium carbonate and soda ash were the same, I'm confused. And what is the difference between mordanting with alluminum acetate and potasic alluminum?
Hi Verónica - Welcome to Color Quest! I'm so happy you found us 🌼 Soda ash is sodium carbonate, not calcium carbonate - easy to mix them up 😊 Aluminum acetate is a more refined version of aluminum potassium sulfate and is recommended for cellulose fibers like cotton. It is typically more expensive, so no need to use this for protein fibers - APS is fine for wool & silk.
Hi Nur - thanks for the question. Most woods will have some kind of natural color coming from the tannins. Many have a more neutral color like beige, but some trees will also hold another color like Sappanwood in this video. The color you get from sawdust will depend on what type of tree you are chipping. You can soak and then simmer the tree sawdust for several hours try dyeing fiber to see what color will come from the trees you have.
I'm afraid you will have to just be cautious about what liquids come into contact with your fiber that has been pH shifted. I would recommend using a very gentle soap, like baby detergent, which typically has a neutral pH. You could dye a scrap piece of fiber as well to test it in your own environment to see how it reacts.
@@MargaretByrdColorQuest when you said coral in the beginning you got my attention 😃 I was thinking if I can get a coral by dyeing pink first then over dyeing with an orange color... I don't know if that would work or what it give but someday I'm gonna try. Also I think instead of trying to find a green I'm just going to try indigo and a yellow to get greens. Oh how did your workshop go at the color farm? Is it color farm?
@@jessicabey275 Here's a tiny hint: the video set to publish on July 15th is definitely bringing coral to the table (at least to my eyes). I've got it brewing here and it's look pretty coral-like. I will give a sneak peak to it at the end of next week's video 😉 Playing around with over-dyeing is always a good option. You can also look at exhaust baths to see if a less potent dye pot will yield coral. I had some of that going on with my exhaust dye bath video last month. Here I shifted a 100% WOF dye bath, so maybe try it with the 20% version? So many options to try! I've gotten coral-ish colors from aloe vera + soda ash, especially on silk. Check out those results to see if you might want to try that out too. The most common way to get a solid green is exactly how you've described: indigo+yellow (weld, pericon, etc.). The professionals know their stuff 😉 I'm hosting a workshop on fresh leaf indigo at the Color Farm in August. The workshop I attended this past week was on indigo resist techniques. It was truly amazing and I learned so much. The teacher, Elin Noble, is a wonderful instructor with decades of dye experience. Many of the students were very seasoned in surface design techniques so I was among some extremely knowledgeable and skilled women. Very inspiring and I will be bringing those ideas back to my own art studio to create new work for sure. I feel very lucky!
@@MargaretByrdColorQuest I definitely be waiting for that video! I have 2 aloe Vera plants (they don't look the best, I'm not a good aloe mom) and I have a few leaves(?) That are drying up and I'll leave them to dry and save them because they are turning a mauve-y redish hue. I have been meaning to watch your video of Aloe and I think I have it saved in my watch later.. I will have to look up color resist. I think I have seen it on pinterest but never clicked on the picture.
@@jessicabey275 You should definitely play with the aloe in your dye pot before it gets too dried up (although it will probably still work!). It is a super fun dye 💕 Resist is anything that blocks color from adhering to a substrate. Shibori is based on resist, for example. The workshop I took used thread stitch as a resist which was new to me and very interesting for my own art practice. So many amazing ways to work with fiber!
The colors were great. But…. I’m confused. You used 3 grams for 20%, so 6 grams should be 40% not 100%. Were you using less than a full piece of the cloth?
What would I do without you, BJ?!? The reason you are confused is because I confused you! You are absolutely right - I did not calculate it correctly. Based on the WOF for what I dyed in the '100%' bath, I should have actually used 55-60 grams of sappanwood, not 6 grams. So, my dye was only 10%! That probably helps explain why I got colors different and lighter than expected. This is a wonderful teaching moment, so I'm going to film a video today specifically about weight of fiber (WOF) to hopefully clear things up. I'm also going to make another pot of sappanwood, this time truly at 100% 😊 Thank you so much for catching this and commenting. I owe you 💕
Color Quest Friends - Looks like I calculated the 100% Sappanwood incorrectly against the weight of fiber (WOF) in this video (thank you, BJ, for pointing it out!). Based on the WOF I wanted to dye at 100% (55g), I should have used 55g of Sappanwood sawdust. I was off by a decimal point here, so I actually made a 10% Sappanwood dye instead of 100%. Might account for the lighter results in the modified colors 😊 Watch for a new video in the coming days to address WOF and test this again 💕
Wow..Now I want to get some sappanwood….I love the colors. Thanks again for another inspirational video….🙂
It is a very pretty color palette 💕 You are most welcome!
Girl, I love this color it’s giving very much like Trixie Mattel, sun set sky like girl it is beautiful!!
Wow - now that is some sparkly color for sure! Haha - love it 💕
oh wow! that's beautiful 😍
It definitely brought about a pretty palette 💕 I'm fairly sure many other shades are possible with a little more calculated shifts 😊
Coincidently yesterday I was using sappanwood for a traditional Chinese dye recipe.
Sounds like wonderful serendipity ❤️ What is used for this recipe and what is the resulting color? Would love to learn!
@@MargaretByrdColorQuest Hi Margaret! this recipe is described on the book 天工開物 tian gong kai wu. Sappanwood is a common Chinese dye used for red and pinksh tones. Usually as a direct dye or with alum or green vitriol for silk and ramie.
@@yin_xing Thank you for sharing about 天工開物 tian gong kai wu. It sounds like a remarkable resource for traditional natural crafts. I love using ferrous sulfate (green vitriol) to subdue colors and this purplish hue from this video added a nice complement to the palette. Would be wonderful to see what colors you achieved ❤️
@@MargaretByrdColorQuest hi! The colors are from the red family color. In traditional chinese pink and orange was a kind of red hue. Some of the colors are 赤 chi, 葡萄情 putaoqing and 烏紅 wu hong. There's no exact correlation to English, not that I've known. Keep up the good channel 😃! Thanks for your interest
@@yin_xing How amazing to imagine colors that are unique to a particular language. I often wonder how we all experience color, but I'm certain it is a unique to each individual and the environment. What a beautiful thought 🤎
Should fiber be wet before you put it into dye pot? Thank you
Hi Deborah - yes, fiber should always be wet before putting it into a dye or mordant bath. If possible, soaking it in water for 1+ hour is a great habit to start.
Very beautiful results today!!
Sappanwood was a sweet treat in the dye pot, Lisa 💕 Hope you can give it a try!
Hi, this is Verónica from Argentina. I love your job! I"m learning so much from you! Thank you very very much!!
I'm very new at this and I would like to make you a couple of questions. I thought calcium carbonate and soda ash were the same, I'm confused. And what is the difference between mordanting with alluminum acetate and potasic alluminum?
Hi Verónica - Welcome to Color Quest! I'm so happy you found us 🌼 Soda ash is sodium carbonate, not calcium carbonate - easy to mix them up 😊 Aluminum acetate is a more refined version of aluminum potassium sulfate and is recommended for cellulose fibers like cotton. It is typically more expensive, so no need to use this for protein fibers - APS is fine for wool & silk.
@@MargaretByrdColorQuest Thank you very much for your answer and knowledge you give so generously :-)
@@veronicatrakal9399 My pleasure - love to share!
Hi margaret, i want to ask something, how to make dye using sawdust?
Hi Nur - thanks for the question. Most woods will have some kind of natural color coming from the tannins. Many have a more neutral color like beige, but some trees will also hold another color like Sappanwood in this video. The color you get from sawdust will depend on what type of tree you are chipping. You can soak and then simmer the tree sawdust for several hours try dyeing fiber to see what color will come from the trees you have.
Hi Margaret, how do you make sure the colour doesn't change once you wash it ? Lots of people may not use PH neutral detergent...
I'm afraid you will have to just be cautious about what liquids come into contact with your fiber that has been pH shifted. I would recommend using a very gentle soap, like baby detergent, which typically has a neutral pH. You could dye a scrap piece of fiber as well to test it in your own environment to see how it reacts.
that yellow looks like what I got from my apple leaves
Cool! I went heavy on the lemon juice, so I bet there are some more corals and peaches to be found out there 🧡
@@MargaretByrdColorQuest when you said coral in the beginning you got my attention 😃
I was thinking if I can get a coral by dyeing pink first then over dyeing with an orange color... I don't know if that would work or what it give but someday I'm gonna try.
Also I think instead of trying to find a green I'm just going to try indigo and a yellow to get greens.
Oh how did your workshop go at the color farm? Is it color farm?
@@jessicabey275 Here's a tiny hint: the video set to publish on July 15th is definitely bringing coral to the table (at least to my eyes). I've got it brewing here and it's look pretty coral-like. I will give a sneak peak to it at the end of next week's video 😉
Playing around with over-dyeing is always a good option. You can also look at exhaust baths to see if a less potent dye pot will yield coral. I had some of that going on with my exhaust dye bath video last month. Here I shifted a 100% WOF dye bath, so maybe try it with the 20% version? So many options to try!
I've gotten coral-ish colors from aloe vera + soda ash, especially on silk. Check out those results to see if you might want to try that out too.
The most common way to get a solid green is exactly how you've described: indigo+yellow (weld, pericon, etc.). The professionals know their stuff 😉
I'm hosting a workshop on fresh leaf indigo at the Color Farm in August. The workshop I attended this past week was on indigo resist techniques. It was truly amazing and I learned so much. The teacher, Elin Noble, is a wonderful instructor with decades of dye experience. Many of the students were very seasoned in surface design techniques so I was among some extremely knowledgeable and skilled women. Very inspiring and I will be bringing those ideas back to my own art studio to create new work for sure. I feel very lucky!
@@MargaretByrdColorQuest I definitely be waiting for that video!
I have 2 aloe Vera plants (they don't look the best, I'm not a good aloe mom) and I have a few leaves(?) That are drying up and I'll leave them to dry and save them because they are turning a mauve-y redish hue. I have been meaning to watch your video of Aloe and I think I have it saved in my watch later..
I will have to look up color resist. I think I have seen it on pinterest but never clicked on the picture.
@@jessicabey275 You should definitely play with the aloe in your dye pot before it gets too dried up (although it will probably still work!). It is a super fun dye 💕
Resist is anything that blocks color from adhering to a substrate. Shibori is based on resist, for example. The workshop I took used thread stitch as a resist which was new to me and very interesting for my own art practice. So many amazing ways to work with fiber!
The colors were great. But…. I’m confused. You used 3 grams for 20%, so 6 grams should be 40% not 100%. Were you using less than a full piece of the cloth?
What would I do without you, BJ?!? The reason you are confused is because I confused you! You are absolutely right - I did not calculate it correctly. Based on the WOF for what I dyed in the '100%' bath, I should have actually used 55-60 grams of sappanwood, not 6 grams. So, my dye was only 10%! That probably helps explain why I got colors different and lighter than expected.
This is a wonderful teaching moment, so I'm going to film a video today specifically about weight of fiber (WOF) to hopefully clear things up. I'm also going to make another pot of sappanwood, this time truly at 100% 😊
Thank you so much for catching this and commenting. I owe you 💕