Thursday, 26 April 2012

Sappanwood- Eastern Brazilwood


Sappanwood, called 'eastern brazilwood', is a more eco-friendly dye stuff, as 'brazilwood' is an endangered species.  Sappanwood has the same chemicals that make brazilwood such a beautiful dye.
Dye concentrate was made by boiling 2L of water with 60 mL of brasilwood sawdust and 2.5 mL of lye.  Cheese cloth was laid over the inside of a plastic colander to remove the saw dust from the solution as it get stuck in the fibres of the fabric.


These fabrics have not been mordanted.


The 'pinks' in the back have been mordanted with alum.
The 'purple/black' fabrics in the foreground have been mordanted with copperas.
The orange ones on the bottom are the unmordanted fabrics.


The protein fibres (silk and wool) dye the darkest.  Here they are the nearly black fabrics.

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