Natural Dyeing a Wool Blanket

This wool blanket is  special. It was produced in the UK sometime between 1941 and 1952 when the government set strict standards for UK produced products, to aid the war economy. 

The Price Control Mark label specifies this blanket, NPC 880, was guaranteed to contain 2 pounds of wool and had a set price of 25/8 shillings.

With such a history I must admit I did hesitate before plunging it into the alum bath.

The wrinkled label testifies to the abuse the blanket has been put through over its 60 or 70 years. It has been unevenly and probably unintentionally, fulled. 

Now it needs to be made beautiful again - with fungi and lichen dyes.

Fairy Ring mushrooms sound as though they will produce something magical.

Mushrooms plus lichens laid out on the blanket. 

Plus a few lichen covered twigs and scraps of bark

All rolled up tightly then squeezed into a bucket of acidic pond water and ammonia.

The bucket will now rest beside the boiler for a month or so, or until I can no longer wait to open it.

Simultaneous Mordant on Tree Cloths Insitu

To encourage staining on the tree cloths I made up a tannic acid solution....

...and sponged it on the cloths while they were wrapped around the trees...

...and after it had rained while the cloth was wet.

Staining did appear to be most active on the tannic acid soaked parts of the cloth.

BA(Hons) Studies Continue in September

My BA(Hons) studies resumed again in September. I told my tutor, Sarah Burgess, of my decision to continue with the tree cloths for my graduating exhibition work. She suggested I wrap 4 more sheets around trees as insurance. I bought 4 single-sized bed sheets and scoured them to remove all sizing.

I pre-mordanted them in the nearby sea.

 

 

 

 

Wrapping the 4 Trees Again

Arbutus


Maple

Douglas-fir

Cedar

Decisions Decisions

Throughout this term of my studies I had continued to move along about 8 other dialogues out in the forest that I had established during the previous term. By the end of the winter term I decided my final degree exhibition would be about the tree cloths - a big decisions when I still had so much to resolve. This meant I needed to wrap another set of cloths around the trees and I needed to do it now to give the trees as much time as possible to get busy staining the cloth.

I liked the idea of pre-mordanting the cloth in sea water just a short distance away from where the trees are growing. Sampling had shown sea water to be an effective pre-mordant on cotton. A pre- mordant was likely to stimulate the staining process.

I made another decision too. The cloths would be bed sheets my 3 children slept on while growing up. 

I liked the idea of using the same nurturing cloths being used to express my need to get to know these trees.   

An important part of my work is to use textiles with an accumulated history. During a research module I had written a paper looking at how different artists worked with the human imprint on cloth.
While I soaked the sheets in the sea, 2 men  threw a ball for their dog and watched me. When I walked back towards them they said, 'We have to ask. Art or science?' I said, 'both.'

Eco-printing on Tree Cloths

After washing and ironing the eco-printed samples...

..i found them uninspiring.

 

This Cedar stem showed the most potential as a dye source.

I tore off pieces of the Cedar tree cloth and soaked them in a number of different pre-mordants,
sea water...

... almond milk and ash water. Each sample was coded with the different combinations of pre-mordants it had been soaked in. Sample cloths were left to dry slowly, outside on rocks in the garden.

Tree Cloths

After I had pre-mordanted 4 bed sheets, I wrapped my 4 trees with cloths for the second time.
The 1st cloths were used for experiments in dyeing and sampling then sent to the UK to be assessed.
These 2nd cloths will be used in my final work for my degree.

Arbutus

Big-leaf Maple

Douglas-fir

Red Cedar

Tree Cloths

I am wrapping my 4 trees again. This time I want to encourage more staining on the cloth so i soaked 4 bed sheets in almond milk and left them outside to dry. Then I took them down to the sea.

Two lots of different pre-mordants should encourage the staining.

While I was laying the sheets in the sea and trying not to get too wet myself, 2 men watched while their dog ran for a ball. As I walked back up the beach to the car and passed them, one said, "We have to ask."
I said,"What do you think I was doing?"
"It is either science or art", was the answer.
I told them it was both.

Look how the waves wrapped the sheet into a cinnamon bun bundle.