Dyer's Coreopsis part 1

Coreopsis seedlings

Getting bigger!

Coreopsis tinctoria, otherwise known as dyers coreopsis, is a lovely little annual plant with rangy foliage and tons and tons of little yellow flowers with deep red centers.  I started mine from seed in early June and by mid August the plants were knee high and full of flowers.  Every time I pick the plants clean, the plants are full again in 2 days!

All grown up and towering over the marigolds in my dye garden

So here is my first natural dyeing experiment:

Ingredients:

• small handful of 100% wool yarn and a 3" x 3" square of 55% hemp/ 45% organic cotton fabric, premordanted with 15% alum = 25 grams
• 25 g Coreopsis tinctoria flowers
• water
• small stainless steel sauce pan and a small cast iron sauce pan

Picked 25g of coreopsis flowers and steeped them in the sun in 4 cups of water for 6 hours (like sun tea!)

I allowed the coreopsis tea to sit over night to make sure all the pigment was extracted

Then I simmered the flowers for 30 minutes in a stainless steel pan

I took half the dye concentrate and added it to a cast iron pan and added about a cup of water to each, then simmered for an hour.  Iron is typically used to "sadden" colors in natural dyeing.

100% Wool yarn and a small 3"x 3" square of organic cotton/hemp fabric dyed in the stainless steel pan

100% wool yarn and hemp/organic cotton fabric dyed in the cast iron pan.  I don't know if I'd call this "sad" but it definitely altered the color to a more green bronze.

This was really fun.  I cannot wait to try more plants.  I have to admit I didn't expect the colors to be so vibrant.  I think for the next batch, I'll wind off larger skeins of yarn.  Also, after reading through all the books in the previous post, I don't need to use so much Alum to be an effective mordant.  Next time I'll do 8% as suggested in Wild Color.  Next up, Coreopsis part II!