Introduction:
Pern, as an agrarian society, has a rich and varied history of dyeing, both
that brought by the Ancients, and what we have learned over the turns. Many
types of plants produce dyes: some need special processes to produce them,
some need mordants to make them fast and some need only to be combined with
boiling water. As weavers, we should know what colors are conceivable on a
world without chemical dyes. There are three sections to this book; this is
the first, listing some of the different colors that come from plants. The
second makes no sense unless you have read the first, and is a general
overview of dying and the processes of it. The third is a glossary,
explaining all the unfamiliar words as best I can. I have listed the
dyestuffs by color: purple, yellow, blue, green, red, orange, pink, brown,
and black-grey-neutrals. A simple foreword preceedes each color. This book is
meant as an overview only, and is by no means comprehensive.
Purple:
Purple has a wonderful range of colors that can be acheived. Some may also be
listed in another area. That is not a mistake; it is a combination of those
two colors. Purples have been chosen by many crafts and holds as their
colors: Healer purple, weaver lavender, and of course the various holds, too
many to list here.
Wild Grape: The fruit produces a gray-violet dye.
Elderberries make a purple to lavender dye.
Cherry Roots make a blue-violet.
Orchil, Cudbear, Sea Snails, and Madder also make purples, in a wide range that have every master dyer arguing over blends.
Perhaps the most controversial of all are the rose, pink, and purple shades
made by various applications of the following:
Blackberries, Sloe fruits, Blueberries and Black Huckleberries.
Yellow:
Yellows can hearten someone by use of a bright, cheery color. They can
indicate the color of a gold rider's dragon. They are used by both the
Herdercraft and Farmcraft as craft colors, and many holds also use yellow as
one of their colors.
Goldenrod: A deep yellow dye is produced from the flowers.
Black walnut husks make a yellow-brown.
Lichen can make a bright gold.
Tumeric: powder gives a golden yellow.
Apple and Pear Tree: bark makes a lemony yellow.
Bloodroot, when boiled, gives a yellow-orange.
Yellow dyes can come from:
Fustic, Quercitron, Dock, Sassafras, twigs of barberry, the bark of black oak,
the tips and flowers of broom, the tops and flowers of tansy, ragwort, St.
Johnswort and goldenrod, the outer skins of onions, the tops of Queen of the
Meadow, the berries of snowberry, Desert Lavender, pomegrante peel, osage
orange roots and bark, Morin, Broom flowers, Saffron, mulberry wood, crocus
flowers, willow leaves, March marigolds, inner bark of ash, tulip tree
leaves, privet. the leaves and tops (before seeding) of weld, and alder. The
inner bark of Red Ossier Dogwood can be used in mixtures for yellow.
Blue:
Blue is used by many Holds, Weyrs, and crafts. It seems to be the traditional
color for bridegrooms to wear on their wedding day. A strand of blue woven
into a rider knot when the weyr colors are already there shows the color his
or her lifemate. The number of blue dyes appear to be few, but at least two
of those are /very/ strong dyes. In fact, make sure, when making anything
with indigo or woad, that you want the clothes you wear, the area you work
in, and whatever you are dying to be blue.
Cherry Roots: blue-violet.
Dogwood Fruit: gray-blue.
Blue dyes also come from:
Most parts of the indigo plant, the berries of mahonia, the leaves of woad,
meadowsweet flowers, chemic, prussian blue, blackberries, blueberries, and
hibiscus flowers.
Green:
Green dyes are one of the easiest to obtain. They have been used by the
Woodcraft, Huntercraft, many Holds, and Southern Weyr. For some, green evokes
memories of spring, of cool forests, of small, immensely fast and manuverable
dragons, or even of life.
Red Onion: skins give gray/green.
Yarrow: the flowers produce a light green.
Fellis: makes a deep green.
Green dyes can also come from:
Spinach, Bracken, Privet, Lily of the Valley, nettle roots, stalks and leaves,
weld, horsetail, plantain leaves and roots, alder, tops of goldenrod flowers,
and berries of ivy when black.
Red:
Red appears to be the traditional color for wedding dresses here on Pern. (How
nice. Can you imagine the clash for someone with red hair?) Some wines are
red, due to the fact that the purple skins are left in. Some red dyes retain
their color, when combined with the proper mordant, for hundreds of Turns.
Pokeweed berries: reddish-purple.
Dandelion roots, cherries, strawberries, red raspberries, cardinal flowers, sorrel roots and bark, and hemlock bark: red-pink.
Buckeye husks: reddish-brown.
Mango pulp: deep reddish pink with a tinge of orange. Success as a dyeing substance unknown; most likely comparable to any other fruit.
Red dyes also come from:
Lichen, the roots of bloodroot, Lady's Bedstraw, madder, the red flowers of
the dahlia and the geranium, the bark of the hemlock tree, the berries of
pokeweed, cochineal, brazilwood, alkanet, annatto, safflower, the inner barks
of cedar, Bur oak, and Red Ossier dogwood, bloodroot, henna, beets, alder,
and the fruity protuberances of prickly-pear cactus. Madder is particularly
effective.
Orange:
Orange is Ista's main color, bright and unmistakable. Some hues blaze out,
some are restful to the eye. Although what I list here gives orange, I don't
doubt that by mixing some of the yellow and red dyes different shades could
be found. Enjoy!
Black Oak, aka Dyer's Oak: inner bark produces strong orange.
Pecan Hulls: red/orange
Bloodroot: boiled, gives a yellow-orange.
Orange dyes also come from:
Coreopsis flowers, orange dahlias, certain shellfish from tropical waters, the
roots of Lady's Bedstraw and madder, and the outer skins of onions.
Pink:
Pink can usually be obtained from a second use of a red dyebath, but here are
a few other colors. Some are also listed elsewhere; a few are entirely unique
to this section. Have fun with them!
Madder root: peach.
Dandelion roots, cherries, strawberries, red raspberries, cardinal flowers, sorrel roots and bark, hemlock bark: red-pink.
Birch bark, willow bark, sassafras roots: rose-tan.
Cherry bark: salmon.
Alder: young shoots and catkins give pink.
Perhaps the most controversial dyes of all are the rose, pink, and purple shades made by various applications of the following: Blackberries, Sloe fruits, Blueberries, Black Currants and Black Huckleberries.
Brown:
Brown is a useful color, not showing dirt as well as most. Many shades come
from trees. In fact, some don't even need mordants, they're that strong. (Of
course, they also /smell/ that strong...) Brown somehow strikes the balance
betwixt dark and light, warm and cold. (Color-wise, that is...) So, here they
are. Have at it!
Stinging nettle plants are used to produce a tan dye.
Black walnut husks: yellow-brown.
Walnut husks (boiled): dark brown.
Buckeye husks: reddish-brown.
Birch bark, willow bark, sassafras roots: rose tan.
Brown also comes from:
The bark of Big Bud Hickory, butternut, alder, hemlock, the heartwood and pods
of cutch, grey lichen, the needles of larch, woodchips or sawdust of
mahogany, the leaves of mountain laurel, the bark of oak and the twigs of
pyracanthe.
Black-Gray-Neutrals:
Black is one of the hardest to get because of its darkness. Grays and neutrals
are also in this chapter. This is the last chapter of this section: I can
only hope you liked it...
Red Onion: skins give a gray/green.
Wild Grape: the fruit produces a gray-violet dye.
Sunflower hulls: gray.
Black comes from:
Logwood, the inner bark of the Bur Oak and Red Ossier Dogwood, walnut husks,
sumac leaves, and privet.
Gray and Black also come from:
Ashes, alder bark, the bark of alder, the young tips of blackberry, the
berries of buckthorn, the nuts of butternut, and the roots of Yellow Flag
Iris.
Neutral colors come from:
The barks of various trees, including birches and oaks, galls and sumac.
Second Section Introduction
You now have had a sampling of the different colors available to us. Some of
those plants work on wool, cotton, and linen, such as oak. Others work only
on wool. Roots and barks tend to give more permanent dyes than berries and
fruits, which are more often used to dye food. Mordanting, commonly done
before dyeing, can be done with a number of different metallics, and several
acids; mordanting may, in some cases, coincide with the dyeing. Please note
that the color produced can change if one uses a different mordant or part of
the plant. At times, one can use a dyebath a second time to make a paler and
most likely less colorfast shade, but it is generally recommended that a
dyebath be used only once. Depending upon the place and season of its
gathering, shades will vary; although dyeing is an art on Pern, it has not
yet become a science. Thereby, if you were to use the same plant species,
gathered from the same place at different seasons, you would never once have
the exact same color. Should you happen to stumble across a color you
particularly like, try to write as much as you can down about
*everything*--the weather that turn, what it looks like growing, time of day
when it was gathered, the pot you used for the dyebath. Always make sure
there is excellent ventilation in the area you use for mordanting and dyeing;
many of the mordants are poisonous. Each time you dye is an adventure, from
gathering to dyeing, and you can never be quite sure what the end product
will be like.
Dyed-in-the-wool and heathering: what they are
The colors are many, and those obtained without use of the aniline dyes are
generally warmer, softer, more soothing to the eyes. The colors of the
natural dyes can be sharpened by using cream of tartar. The term
'dyed-in-the-wool' refers to skeins that are dyed before they are spun. If
you have two colors that have been 'dyed-in-the-wool', they may be carded and
spun together, giving you a unique combination that could inspire you to
design something entirely new. An example of this 'heathered' or 'rainbow'
effect is the so-called 'Puritan gray', a woolen fabric that barely hinted at
blue, said to have been made of left-over wool scraps dyed with indigo, then
spun with good white and black wool. Imagine doing that with lavender, gray,
and twilight blue! Don't limit yourself; explore and experiment. The
possiblities are endless!
Gathering and drying dyestuffs
Gathering dyestuffs:
Different parts of plants are best taken at certain times of year. Berries and fruits should be picked whenver they are ripe; nuts should be collected as they fall. Barks and tree roots are best taken between February and June, when they will give more intense colors. Remove the bark from prunings, firewood, and the ground. Never take much of the roots from a tree, particually a young one. Other roots tend to be better if gathered in the autumn. Put the dyestuffs in a large, porous bag, such as a fine mesh, to keep them fresh until you return to where you will be drying them.
Drying what you've gathered:
Sun drying works best in areas with low humidity, such as Igen, and is done much like the second method. Here, I suggest following one of the methods below.
When constant sunlight is unavailable, there are 3 ways to dry indoors: (1) Plants are placed on a screen made by stretching a light material over a frame and securing it, then placing it in a well-ventilated room. (2) Plants can be spread out on a warm, dry shelf. They must be turned frequently and kept at 65-70 degrees. (3) Plants can be tied in small bunches, head down, in a dry room. Make sure they cannot get wet or they will mildew. You can protect them with a 'sleeve' of muslin. After they are dried, all herbs can be stored in water tight containers such as jars with tight fitting lids.
Amounts and materials
The instructions for dying change for each fabric and every type of plant used
for the dyestuff. The amounts of dyestuff needed also vary, clearly
demonstrating that dying is an art best learned from someone who has
experience. For instance, on an average depending on the dyestuff you use, to
dye one pound of wool you need two pounds of nut hulls, one to two pounds of
fresh plant material, or one pound of roots.
In general, the passing of the seasons have a strong effect on certain colors produced by certain plants; softer colors prevail in spring, such as pastels. Later on, in summer, the same plants give richer, deeper colors, like the feeling of the season itself. When winter comes, it brings the darker colors to those plants.
There seems to be some disagreement as to whether fresh or dried material is better, but unless it is vat-prepared indigo, it gets boiled for the actual dyebath. A large kettle, hot fire, and a long-handled spoon seem to be agreed-upon as things needed when doing the actual dyeing, and the pot and spoon should not be used for food. I repeat, many of the mordants are poisonous. Outside would probably be best for mordanting and dying, but a place without a ceiling would also be splendid. Come to that, find a place as hot as the Hatching Ground sands and you won't need a fire! There are several different ways to prepare indigo, which I will cover below.
Ista is a perfect enviroment for growing indigo; hot, humid, and sunny, with plenty of fertile soil. Indigo by itself is a dark purpulish color, and must be thinned and lightened to get a true, clear blue, but it is colorfast, lightfast, and needs no mordant if properly prepared. Here I will deal with four species: Indigofera tinctoria, I. suffruticosa, I. sumatrana, and what is known on Earth as Japanese indigo, Polygonum tinctorium. Indigofera can grown by seed or root division in spring; soak the seeds in warm water the night before planting to soften the hard casing, and place about half an inch deep in the ground a foot apart. Perennial shrubs reaching four to five feet in height, they bloom from midsummer through autumn with small clusters of tiny bronze flowers that evolve into brown seed pods, thus coming full circle. I. tinctoria is the species of choice for dyers, but I. suffruticosa seems more tolerant of cooler climates. My sources give two different methods for dealing with Indigofera and one for Polygonum; I will start by detailing the easiest of the first two, listed as being used for I. sumatrana.
I. sumatrana is known on Earth as Madras indigo, and is sown about the end of April, reaches 3 to 5 feet by the middle of June, and at that time is firt harvested, another crop ready by August. Cut early in the morning, it is then steeped in water for somwhere between 9 and 14 hours, the liquid thereafter drained off into another vat where it is violently beaten to bring into it as much air as possible with bamboo sticks. The indigo is allowed to settle to the bottom, and the water run off; after being strained and sterilized by boiling, it is dried and cut into blocks.
Polygonum tinctorium is harvested and dried two times throughout the growing season, and is composted as the season ends and the weather begins to cool. Beginning in early October and ending in late January, the composting takes about 120 days. The dried leaves are mixed with water and left for around a week; if left too long, the process will stop, so water and air have to be added regularly by turning the piles. Turning them requires pulling the pile to one side gradually, adding water, breaking any clumps, moving the bottom of the pile to the top and replacing the pile to its previous position. Once the composting is finished, the material is placed in a vat with lye until it ferments, and is then used as dye. Dyeing with this requires a certain amount of patience; when you first remove the fabric from the vat it will appear undyed, but if you wait a bit, it will slowly turn blue. To obtain darker colors, repeat the dipping.
First, strip the leaves off the I. tinctoria's branches just as the plants come into bloom; that's when they give the best dye. Pack them in a heat-resistant jar, cover with the leaves with water, fasten the lid on, and warm to 160 degrees fairenheight until the water changes to an amber. Pour off the liquid and use as a dyebath. (A solar method can be found in the chapter on alternate methods.) Most recipes call for lye and ammonia, but since the latter is not available on Pern, I would suggest you use fermented urea, which the older recipes required (and incidently creates ammonia.) Either wood-ash lye or woad lye will work, and possibly soapstone. Now, for the recipe itself, and the directions...
1 ounce of lye or substitute
1/2 ounce indigo powder (which can dye as much as one pound of wool) or liquid
dye
2 ounces fermented urea (I don't know if this is quite right, since I took it
from a contemporary recipe--try doubling)
Various jars, one gallon, one quart, one pint and smaller
Thermometer (alcohol, not mercury)
Mix the lye with warm water in a quart jar; stir until dissolved.
If you are using indigo lumps, put the powder in a small jar, then add warm
water until it reaches almost the consistency of ink without chunks.
Remember, you can always add water, but once it's in there, it's blue. If
you're using the liquid poured off from the dye making, go on to the next
step.
Pour both mixtures into the gallon jar and fill to 3/4ths full with hot water,
approximately 120 to 130 degrees farenheight, but not over 140.
This new mixture is your stock solution; though it can be used for dyeing,
indigo is concentrated to such an extent in it that the color will rub off
later. So pour half of it into another jar to use in the future, and the
remainder shall be your basic dyebath with the additions listed. Fill a pint
jar with warm water, add an ounce of the fermented urea, and stir until they
are throughly combined. Pour half into the dyebath, mix gently, and advoid
splashing; tightly close the jar after labeling it.
Let the dyebath stagnate for approximately thirty minutes; the liquid should
be a yellowish green at the end of this time. Drop in a small skein of yarn,
piece of scrap cloth, or other such well-wetted material to test the dye,
swish carefully for a few moments, and remove, squeezing out excess dye back
into the dyebath.
The test material should have a greenish tinge, gradually darkening to blue as
it comes in contact with the air and developing steadily as time passes. This
process may be followed to dye whatever else you were planning on. There
/will/ be sediment at the bottom of your dyebath; try not to let the material
drift down to this, as it will leave darker blue blotches whereever they come
into contact with it. If you splash too much, not only will the entire area
turn blue, so will the dyebath. Should this happen, stir more of the
fermented urea into the dyebath and wait 10-15 minutes; a return to the
yellowish green is the desired result. To get darker shades, simply re-wet
the material and repeat the dyeing process.
About some of the mordants
Mordants are fixants, chemical agents that attach the dye particles more
firmly to the fabric. Or, in plain Pernese, mordants make the fabrics closer
to colorfast. There are, as far as I know, two basic methods of mordanting:
use a pot made of the mordant (i.e. iron or copper), or measure out a smaller
amount of powdered mordant. The second method is more predictable; with the
first you never know how much or how little of the mordant will be released,
though the method is safer. All of the mordants have their own properties and
come from different sources, which I will now go into.
Alum (potassium aluminum sulfate) is a white mineral deposit found in many types of rock formations. In some places, it can be found around aluminum-bearing rocks. Alum sets the colors, but doesn't change them. Occaisionally, it slightly yellows the fabric or yarn, but this is normal. Too much alum makes wool feel gummy. It is one of the less poisonous mordants.
Copper (copper sulfate) usually produces a slight greening effect; it can be used alone as a mordant or as a postmordant addition to darken colors or change a yellow or yellow-green to a more definate green. Very little will last a long time, three ounces mordant 3 to 4 pounds of wool. Also, though highly effective on animal-derived substances, it fails to work well on plant fibers.
Iron or Coppperas (ferrous sulfate) darkens colors, heightening greens. It works phenomenonally with wool and some plant fibers, but too much makes wool harsh and brittle.
Tannin (tannic acid) is found in tree bark, sumac, oak galls, tea leaves and other plant parts. It can be used alone to make tan or brown colors for wool or leather. Wool premordanted with it tends to darken as time passes. Presumably, so does leather.
Tin (stannous chloride) is best kept in a tightly sealed container out of the reach of children or pets. It is used in minuscle amounts; three ounces lasts a long time and mordants about five pounds of wool. It is most advatageously used to brighten colors, though it doesn't work as well on plant derivatives. Too much makes wool harsh and brittle.
Assistants and additives
Assistants help the fabric and yarns absorb the dyes better; additives are
placed in the dyebath or during the mordanting in small amounts to bring
about a change of color. Here are a few examples of what they do:
Baking Soda (bicarbonate of soda) can sometimes, when used as an additive or an afterbath, turn a violet or purple dye like logwood to a more bluish color.
Cream of tartar (tartaric acid) is occaisonally used in the dyebath with alum to keep wool soft. It also makes colors faster and may heighten colors, especially yellows and reds, as well as deter mordant damage of wool. It is non-poisonous.
Salt (table salt) brightens colors, helps wool take dyes evenly, and can be used as an afterbath or added to a dyebath. It works exceedingly well as a cold-water rinse for cotton, enhancing the color-fastness.
Vinegar (diluted acetic acid) helps to set the colors after dying. It also brings out color in berry dyes and can change violet or purple to a more reddish hue. Note: plain white vinegar is generally recommended, but apple cider vinegar transposes logwood's usual purple to a deep blue, if you wish to experiment.
Tannin (tannic acid) is used as an assistant with alum on cotton. Some dyestuffs, like tea, contain tannin naturally, and therefore need no mordanting, though if you wish to change the color other mordants may be used.
When to mordant
Everything you dye should be soaked beforehand, but the times they need vary.
Fibers are best wetted in hot or warm water. Generally, if you look in your
basin of warm water and the cloth is all the way on the bottom, it's soaked
through and ready for the mordant and dyebath. Speaking of /mordants/...
When you are dyeing, there are three points at which the fibers can be mordanted: before the dyebath (premordanting), during the dyebath (simultaneous dyeing) and after the dyebath (postmordanting). All of them have their own quirks.
Premordanting provides more scope for exploration, enabling the dyer to acquire several different colors from the same dyebath, as well as cutting down the time needed if he or she found a new plant they wanted to experiment with. As there are several different methods of premordanting, I won't cover them here.
Simultaneous mordanting is very simple. First prepare the dyebath, enclose the plant material in a stocking, gauze, or cheesecloth bag (unless you /want/ to pick bits and pieces of dyestuff out of your fiber? No?) Then place the mordant and any additive you wish into the warm dyebath, stir until dissolved, add the fiber, and simmer for about an hour. You can either let the fiber cool in the dyebath or remove them and rinse in water the same temperature until it runs clear. Gently squeeze out the excess water and hang it up to dry. One of the attractive things about this manner of mordanting is the fact that more delicate dyestuffs (such as young leaves or flowers) and their resulting dyes do not simmer overlong, and thus the colors remain clear.
Postmordanting allows you to brighten or darken the color of already-dyed material. To brighten, take two cups of warm water during the last fifteen to twenty minutes. In one, dissolve a half ounce of tin; do the same with half an ounce of cream of tartar in the other cup. Remove what you are dyeing from the dyebath, and swing the pot away from the fire. Swiftly add the contents of the two cups to the dyebath, stir thoroughly, and return the iber to the dyebath. Simmer for an additional fifteen minutes, let the fiber cool, rinse with a little soap and dry. To darken, follow the same directions but substitute iron in place of tin. If you want to use the dyebath with other mordants, you can make a seperate mordant bath of tin or iron.
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