Studio Updates: New Gear

In this video I’m sharing some updates to my studio, with the spotlight on new products and equipment. In another video we’ll showcase fabrics. It’s always fun to try different ideas and methods. I may not use everything this year, but I like to be “tooled up” and ready.

Digital Scale

One new acquisition is a digital kitchen scale, used to weigh fabric and material for dye projects. This replaces my trusty kitchen scale that is limited to one pound. This affordable Beurer scale weighs up to 33 pounds (15 kilograms), and informs you if an item is “over limit”. You can configure different units, including pounds and ounces, ounces, grams, and kilograms. And you can retain a measurement, which is ideal when trying to weigh materials and record the results at the same time.

Digital kitchen scale for weighing fabric and dye material

Convection Cooktop

Another acquisition is an electric convection burner. I resisted going this route because convection cooktops require flat-bottomed, magnetic pans, which are more expensive and harder to find at thrift stores. But I was eager to move away from propane canisters, which require special disposal. This affordable Ovente Induction Cooktop offers a range of preset temperature levels, from 140 to 465 degrees Fahrenheit. Five timer levels are preset from 1 minute to 3 hours. Safety features shut down the burner when not in use. My camp stove worked well, but it was difficult to regulate temperature (it was either on or off). Luckily one of my thrifted stainless-steel pans works with the new cooktop.

Convection burner

Low-suds Detergent

I ran out of Synthrapol scouring soap at the end of last season, so this year I’m trying a low suds Professional Textile Detergent distributed by Dharma Trading Company. Here in the West, we must conserve water, so I’m hoping a low-suds detergent will reduce the quantity of water needed for rinsing.

Jars, Cans and Containers

I’m always on the lookout for good jars, cans, and containers. Last year I purchased a 3-liter canning jar at a thrift store, which works great for solar dyeing. Jars are also handy for storing used dye, collecting plant material, and mixing additives. Cans are also useful for mixing and extracting dye. Meat and vegetable trays can be used to collect and dry plant material. They are often high quality and in a variety of sizes.

Cans, jars, and containers are great for storing, drying and preparing dye material

Ferrous Sulfate

Last year I added ferrous sulfate powder to a red camelia dye bath. Iron darkens or “saddens” the dye bath, producing darker colors. This year I’d like to experiment more with using iron in the dye bath as a modifier to produce additional colors. You can make your own iron mordant solution by soaking iron in vinegar water and use it as an alternative to ferrous sulfate.

Make your own iron solution

Exhaust Dyeing

This year I also plan to experiment with exhaust dyeing, which means reusing dyes. Over the last several years I’ve collected quite a few left-over dyes. They have been used once, which is the first exhaust. Each use of a dye is an exhaust. With each exhaust, the color becomes lighter and lighter. Modifiers, such as washing soda and iron, change the pH of the dye bath and further modify the dye color. I’m curious to see the range of colors that can be produced from a single dye bath.

Each reuse of a dye is an exhaust

Solar and Eco-Dyeing

This year we’ll try more solar dyeing, which uses the sun or time to dye. And we may try "eco-dyeing", which is the direct transfer of color from plants. I’ve seen some interesting projects online.

Well, that’s it for now. As you can see, I have lots of plans, but may run out of time. Whatever I decide to do, I’m tooled up and ready to dye!

Practical Formulas

Every homesteader needs a resource like Rodale's Book of Practical Formulas (Rodale Press, Inc., New York, 1991). It is filled with recipes and formulas for all your do-it-yourself, cleaning, remodeling, repairing, camping, celebrating, and problem-solving projects. My sister gave this book to me one Christmas, and I refer to it anytime I want a non-toxic, sustainable, low cost solution to a project. The section on cleaning solutions for tile and grout is especially well used. The book is written by a team of experts in their fields, and provides a distilled version of their expertise. 

The book is divided into ten chapters that cover most areas of life: Car Care, Cooking, Gardening, Beauty, Health, Home Repair and Remodeling, Housekeeping, Crafts, Pet Care, and Outdoor Life. Recipes and formulas range from driveway cleaner, a one-minute breakfast, cutworm bait, apple-cider vinegar toner, and chapped lips salve; to colored concrete, lemon oil furniture polish, flower drying mixes, deluxe dog biscuits, and hiker's granola. The backmatter provides a list of supply sources from all over the world (herbs and spices, beeswax, diatomaceous earth, orange oil, plaster molds, dyes and mordants, to name a few).

Two of my favorite chapters are Gardening and Crafts. The Gardening chapter provides recipes for seed starting and soil mixes, natural fertilizers, compost and pest repellents. Other formulas encourage root growth and sterilize containers. The Crafts chapter includes a section on "Dye Crafts", with information about plants used for dyeing, and how to dye wool (should be useful when I expand from dyeing cellulose-based fibers to protein-based fibers). I heartily recommend this book for any task or project you need to tackle. And, when you're ready for a break, head over to the Cooking chapter for the sandwich bar and apple crisp! 

Seed Sources to Dye For

 I'm writing this post in the midst of a February "heat wave" in the San Francisco Bay Area. We've had temperatures in the mid-seventies during the day, which quickly cool to the high-fifties when the sun sets. Many people are out jogging, walking the dog, and starting their garden clean up. We all know this is temporary - in a few days we'll be back to the mid-sixties or lower. But it's enough to give us hope for the warm days to come, and to encourage us to think about garden plans. 

Hopi Red Dye Amaranth (Photo Credit: Baker Creek Heirloom Seeds)

I'm taking the opportunity to research seed sources for plants that are especially good for dyeing.

• In A Garden to Dye For, Chris McLaughlin recommends Peaceful Valley Farm & Seed Supply in Grass Valley, CA. Their online store, GrowOrganic.com, lists a "Garden to Dye For " seed collection for plants that make great botanical dyes, like African Marigold (Tagetes erecta), Chantenay Carrot (Daucus carota var. sativus), and Orange Calendula (Calendula officinalis). If it's out of stock, add your name to the waitlist.

• She also recommends Southern Exposure Seed Exchange in Mineral, Virginia as a source. A search for "dye plants" yields Calendula (C. officinalis), Coreopsis (Coreopsis tinctoria), and Hopi Dye Sunflower (Helianthus annuus).

• Baker Creek Heirloom Seeds in Mansfield, Missouri looks intriguing. They also carry Hopi Dye Sunflower, which dyes shades from dove gray to deep purple; and Hopi Red Dye Amaranth (Amaranthus cruentus x powellii), which dyes piki bread (and fabric?) a deep blue or purple.

• Closer to home is Siskiyou Seeds located in southwest Oregon. They carry two Dyer's Collections for the avid dyer and gardener. Dyer's Collection 1 includes: Cosmos (Cosmos spp.), Safflower orange (Carthamus tinctorius), and Zinnia scarlet (Zinnia spp.) and more. Dyer's Collection 2 includes: Amaranth Red Dye Plume (Amaranthus cruentus x A. powelli), Dyers Chamomile (Cota tinctoria), and Golden Yarrow (Achillea filipendulina) and others.

• I'm a loyal and long-standing client of Renee's Garden Seeds (stretching all the way back to its early days as Shepherd's Garden Seeds). Last year I planted the Marigold, Calendula and Coreopsis seeds with good results. 

Hopi Black Dye Sunflower (Photo Credit: Baker Creek Heirloom Seeds)

It's encouraging that seed providers are offering seeds collections for dyers, and that some seed descriptions now include historical and ethnobotanical information. Plant names can also help you discern whether plants are good for dyeing. Common names may have the word "Dyer" in them, such as Dyer's Chamomile or Dyer's Indigo. Latin names may include some variation of  tinctoria or tinctorius, such as Carthamus tinctorius or Cota tinctoria, which indicates the plant is good for dyeing. This information makes it easier to start including a few dye plants in the garden plan!