Goldenrod dye

This is a record of what I did to process wild goldenrod from the ditches and fields of Manitoulin into a brilliant yellow or gold dye on cellulose (linen and cotton) materials.  The method I used takes days.  I followed advice from Sara Buscaglia's book Quilt Alchemy.  The fabrics were scoured, soaked in tannin, mordanted in alum, and finally dyed with goldenrod flowers or goldenrod leaves and stems.  I'm sharing what I did because it might be helpful to others, but please remember that I am not an expert. I keep learning every time I do this.  

September 13.  Gather the wild material.  

September 14.  Separate the flowers from the green stems and leaves. 

September 15.  Cover the plant material with boiling water and allow to steep overnight.

September 16  Simmer the plant mixture for one hour.  Allow to steeep 8 hours. Repeat two more times.  

September 17:  Continue to simmer and steep.  I had four large cauldrens going.  Two with just flowers and two others with just leaves and stems.  It takes days to get the colour out. Some say that you can over cook the flowers and this makes the colour dull.  Maybe I did, I'm not sure.  

September 18:  Prepare your fabrics by Scouring them.  One tablespoon of liquid soap and two teaspoons of soda ash per cauldren of water. Simmer for one hour and then allow to cool before rinsing.  I prepared six linen damask table cloths.  

September 19:   Mix tannin solutions.  This step is what helps the cellulose accept the colour more regularly.  I used powders from Maiwa.  Marabolom, Henna, and a Tannin that I bought twenty five years ago and never used, on the label it just said tannic acid, but I think it migiht be sumac. 

I made six buckets of tannin in total, two of each tannin.  I did not over crowd and only put one table cloth into each pail.  To make the tannin pre-soaks,  I used 4 talblespoons of tannin powder and 1.5 tablespoons of soda ash in a 5 gallon pail of hot tap water.  Immerse scoured and rinsed and wrung out cloth into the pail.  Make sure there are no air bubbles and the fabric is under the surface.  Allow to cool down and steep over night.

September 20:  Mix alum mordant.  4 tablespoon alum (potassium) and 2 tablespoon soda ash in large bucket of hot water.  Stir.  By this time I had a dozen pots and pails.  It was beautiful weather and I could work on the deck.

Have a pail of luke warm water next to the alum, and rinse the tannin-treated cloth in the clear water before wringing it out and putting it into the alum mordant.  I had three large pails of alum mordant.  The recipes say to soak two hours or - overnight - and I always do the overnight option because this is very tiring work and I just need a break.

September 21: Time to dye!  On the most part, I used a cool dyeing method.  I strained the flowers off and filled two buckets with dye made from flowers only.  Rinse the alum soaked cloth and immerse it inito the dye so that there are no air pockets.  Leave overnight.

September 22:  Hang dyed fabrics on the line without rinsing. 

I found a stack of scoured cotton and linen and put that to soak in plain water in the bath tub.  

It is necessary to re-charge the tannin after each use.  To do so, heat up the solution on the stove to the temperature of hot tap water, and then add 1.5 tablespoons of tannin powder and 1 heaping tsp soda ash.  You can re-use your tannin three times.  

September 23: Hang more unrinsed dyed fabrics on the line.  I left my fabrics on the line overnight and then in the morning, I put them through the dryer.  Not washed, not rinsed, just dry.  I usually leave my cloth a month to allow the colour to cure, and then wash it with synthropol liquid soap before using in a quilt. 

September 24 and 25:  I continued re-charging the tannin pre-soaks and also the alum mordant pails.  To recharge - heat up the liquid and add 30 percent of the powders.

I processed the cotton and linen fabrics, and began working with (protein) wool and silk fabrics.   In the evening of September 25, I hung the wool and silk fabrics on the line and we disposed of the tannins and the dyes which were exhausted by now.  The colour was becoming pale.

I have a lot of yellow fabric now.  I hope to create green by overdyeing with indigo.