Dye Project: Solar Dyeing with Avocado

This year we're kicking off the dye season with more solar dyeing, this time with avocado pits and skin (kitchen scraps)! This ties in with our "homesteading in the city" theme, where we try to be resourceful, use what we have, and repurpose items where we can. We tried our first solar dyeing project last year (see Solar Dyeing with Calendula). We're finally ready to try more solar dyeing!

In this tutorial we are solar dyeing cotton fabric with avocado pits and skin. My research shows that the fruit yields lovely shades of pink or coral dye. Some dyers report that the color is slightly different when you dye with pits only or with the skin only. For this project, I’m mixing the two. Many dyers recommend the Hass avocado for good color (Persea americana ‘Hass’). ‘Hass’ is a hybrid tree, that was developed by a Southern California mail carrier and amateur horticulturist, Rudolph Hass.

Hass Avocado (Persea americana ‘Hass’)
Photo Credit: Ivar Leidus

I followed the process documented by Caitlin French in Kissed by the Sun: The Art of Solar Dyeing,  and information found in several other sources. I used three cotton dish towels. The Weight of Fabric was 7.75 ounces (231 grams). The fabric was scoured and mordanted, using a gallnut mordant. Two pieces were also treated in a bath of 15% WOF alum and 2% soda ash as a brightener. The other was not. 

Frozen avocado pits and skin, collected over time.

I collected about 1.6 pounds of avocado pits and skin (726 grams), so, the WOF% is about 314%. I froze the avocado kitchen scraps until I was ready to dye. Ideally, clean the flesh from the pits and skin before freezing. I hadn’t noticed how much pink pigment there is in avocado skin and pits until this project.

Surprising pink pigment

Supplies (the yellowish tint you see in the fabric is from the gallnut mordant)

Supplies for dyeing include:

• Large jar (with room for some movement)
• A gallon of water (+ more as needed)
• Prepared cotton fabric (scoured, gallnut mordant, and alum brightener)
• Alum (2-3 teaspoons per 100 grams of fabric)

NOTE: For safety, use a face mask and rubber gloves.

Solar Dyeing

First, presoak the prepared fabric to ensure the mordants and natural dyes distribute more evenly, and then squeeze out excess water. Pour warm water into the jar, until it is about a third full. Stir in the alum. I used 6 teaspoons for 231 grams of fabric. Let the water cool and the alum dissolve thoroughly. 

Layer fabric and avocado scraps, and fill with alum water

Add a layer of avocado scraps to the alum treated water. Then add the first piece of fabric.  Add more avocado. Add the second piece of fabric, and repeat. Top with the rest of the avocado. With the stir stick, evenly distribute avocado scraps around the sides of the jar. Add water to cover the fabric and avocado. Let the water settle, and then top it off. Close the lid.

After three weeks (the fabric looks pink)

Leave the jar in a sunny spot, inside or out. You start to see the color appear after several hours. Check the fabric color daily, and agitate the jar slightly to distribute the dye. I soaked the fabric for three weeks. Once the fabric is the desired color, remove it from the jar and squeeze out excess liquid.

Rinse until the water runs clear

Air dry fabric

Rinse the fabric in cool water until the water runs clear. Run the fabric through the washing machines' rinse and spin cycles, using cold water. Let the fabric air dry. Two weeks later, wash the fabric in a pH neutral soap, like Synthrapol or Professional Textile Detergent, and hang to dry.

An interesting shade of butterscotch

Surprisingly, the resulting color looks more like butterscotch than pink or coral. Possibly the fabric was packed too tightly or remained too long in the dye? The unexpected outcomes are part of the adventure and fun of home dyeing. Note that the fabric piece that did not receive the extra alum brightening bath, ended up the same color as the two pieces that did.

Learn More:

• Kissed by the Sun: The Art of Solar Dyeing, by Caitlin Ffrench. November 28, 2017. (Kissed by the Sun: The Art of Solar Dyeing | Spin Off (spinoffmagazine.com)  
• Solar Dyeing - Super Slow Fashion, by Ria Burns.
• Tutorial: Lockdown Craft Activity - Try Solar Dyeing with Onion Skins, by Ria Burns.

Tisha

This year we're reading several "homesteading" books, in place of watching movies where plants are the stars. These books tie into this year's "homesteading in the city" theme, and celebrate how resourceful and innovative people are, whether they are living off the land, pioneering something new, or choosing an alternative way to live. Plants may not be the stars in these books, but I'm pretty they're in the background!

This time our book is Tisha, As Told to Robert Specht (Bantam Books, New York 1984). In 1927, nineteen year old Anne Hobbs travels from Eagle to Chicken, Alaska via a pack train in the last run of the season. Anne had been hired as a teacher in Chicken. Jack Strong has the contract to deliver mail and supplies to Chicken, and delivers Anne along with everything else. Anne goes to work preparing her one-room schoolhouse for the school year, and getting to know the residents of the small mining community.

Social life revolves around Mr. Strong's general store, Friday night dances at Maggie's Roadhouse, and events at the schoolhouse. During the year Anne adopts two orphaned indigenous children, Chuck and Ethyl, and develops strong feelings for a young native man, Fred Purdy. Both rile up community sentiments against her. Anne stubbornly faces their racism and the harsh conditions of the subarctic climate. When Mr. Vaughn kidnaps the two children to take them to Indian Village, Fred and Anne head out by dog sled to stop him, and end up facing an unexpected challenge to rescue a couple and their baby who have fallen through the ice.

I read this book during the pandemic, and enjoyed it completely. Anne is an intriguing person, and her story is engaging and compelling. My family and I traveled in Fortymile Country on a camping trip back in the 1970s, and we visited both Eagle and Chicken. It was late summer, with the trees all leafed out and the sun shining through them. As I recall, my folks had coffee with one of the residents in Chicken and came away with some produce from their garden and several paperback mysteries. The setting was lovely, and it was hard to imagine the contrast of the subarctic winter to come. I recommend this book for anyone interested in a young school teacher's experience in interior Alaska a hundred years ago.

Learn more:

• Anne Hobbs Purdy, by DM Shepard, August 12, 2019. Blog includes photos of Chicken, Alaska, including the school house, Anne's personal living quarters, Jack Strong's warehouse, Maggie's Roadhouse, and other original structures.

• Chicken, Alaska 

• Eagle, Alaska

• Fortymile National Wild and Scenic River

Landscaping Site Visit

This week we had a site visit with a landscaping company that specializes in ecologically sustainable gardens, conservation, restoration and native plant horticulture. My husband and I have been kicking around ideas for years, but have come to the conclusion that we need help implementing them! During the site visit we "walked the land" with two designers and talked about ideas, dreams, and goals. 

Site visit

Our lot is complicated - a triangular piece of land that is surrounded with green electrical boxes, buried cables, two power poles and their guy wires, and ground-level metal access plates to underground utilities. So far I haven't been able to locate any surveyor markers, but we do have an original blueprint of the property.

The site visit went well. I really appreciated hearing ideas from the designers as we looked at the property from all angles, noted its merits and tossed around ideas for its improvement. This is a busy time for landscaping companies, so we are on a wait-list. This gives us some time to complete a few assignments in preparation, and the usual end-of-winter clean up and oak patrol.