Read Ebook: A Book on Vegetable Dyes by Mairet Ethel

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CHROME.

In the dyeing of cotton, it is used for catechu browns and other colours. The cotton is soaked in a decoction of catechu, and afterwards passed through a boiling solution of chrome, or it is worked for half an hour in a bath of chrome at 60??C., and then washed. It is usual to wash wool or cotton after mordanting with chrome, but some dyers do not think it necessary.

COPPER.

Copper is rarely used as a mordant. It is usually applied as a saddening agent, that is, the wool is dyed first, and the mordant applied afterwards to fix the colour. With cream of tartar it is used sometimes as an ordinary mordant before dyeing, but the colours so produced have no advantage over colours mordanted by easier methods.

EXAMPLES.--6 per cent. of copper is used as a mordant for weld to produce an olive yellow. 4 to 5 per cent. is used with old fustic for yellow. 10 per cent. of copper gives to wool a reddish purple with cochineal.

Different mordants give different colours with the same dye stuff. For example:--Cochineal, if mordanted with alum, will give a crimson colour; with iron, purple; with tin, scarlet; and with chrome or copper, purple. Logwood, also, if mordanted with alum, gives a mauve colour; if mordanted with chrome, it gives a blue. Fustic, weld, and most of the yellow dyes, give a greeny yellow with alum, but an old gold colour with chrome; and fawns of various shades with other mordants.

Cotton and linen are prepared with tannin after they have been through the required cleansing, and if necessary, bleaching operations. A bath is prepared with 2 to 5 per cent. of tannic acid of the weight of the cotton, and a sufficient quantity of water. For dark shades, 5 to 10 per cent. should be used. The bath is used either hot or cold. It should not be above 60??C. The cotton is worked in this for some time, and then left to soak for 3 to 12 hours, while the bath cools. It is then wrung out and slightly washed.

A few examples taken from various recipes of cotton dyeing:--

For 10? lbs. cotton use 12 oz. tannin. For 50? lbs. cotton use 10? lbs. sumach. For 40? lbs. cotton use 10? lbs. sumach. For 20? lbs. cotton use 2? lbs. yellow catechu or black catechu. For 20? lbs cotton spend 3? lbs. of catechu with 3 oz. of blue vitriol.

Some recipes soak the cotton for 24 hours, others for 48 hours.

BRITISH DYE PLANTS

The introduction of foreign dye woods and other dyes during the 17th and 18th centuries rapidly displaced the native dye plants, except in certain out of the way places such as the Highlands and parts of Ireland. Some of these British dye plants had been used from early historical times for dyeing. Some few are still in use in commercial dye work ; but their disuse was practically completed during the 19th century when the chemical dyes ousted them from the market.

The majority of these plants are not very important as dyes, and could not probably now be collected in sufficient quantities. Some few however are important, such as woad, weld, heather, walnut, alder, oak, some lichens; and many of the less important ones would produce valuable colours if experiments were made with the right mordants. Those which have been in use in the Highlands are most of them good dyes. Among these are Ladies Bedstraw, whortleberry, yellow iris, bracken, bramble, meadow sweet, alder, heather and many others. The yellow dyes are the most plentiful, and many of these are good fast colours. Practically no good red, in quantity, is obtainable. Madder is the only reliable red dye among plants, and that is no longer indigenous in England. Most of the dye plants require a preparation of the material to be dyed, with alum, or some other mordant, but a few, such as Barberry, and some of the lichens, are substantive dyes, and require no mordant.

PLANTS WHICH DYE RED.--

PLANTS WHICH DYE BLUE.--

PLANTS WHICH DYE YELLOW.--

Polygonum Persecaria.

Polygonum Hydropiper.

Sawwort.

Pear. Leaves.

Poplar. Leaves.

Plum. Leaves.

Birch. Leaves.

Willow. Leaves.

PLANTS WHICH DYE GREEN.--

Larch. Bark, with alum.

PLANTS WHICH DYE BROWN.--

Larch. Pine needles, collected in Autumn.

Walnut. Root and green husks of nut.

Red currants, with alum.

PLANTS WHICH DYE PURPLE.--

Damson. Fruit, with alum.

PLANTS WHICH DYE BLACK.--

Oak. Bark and acorns.

Elder. Bark, with copperas.

FOOTNOTES:

"On boiling sloes, their juice becomes red, and the red dye which it imparts to linen changes, when washed with soap, into a bluish colour, which is permanent."

Sawwort which grows abundantly in meadows affords a very fine pure yellow with alum mordant, which greatly resembles weld yellow. It is extremely permanent.

THE LICHEN DYES

Some of the most useful dyes and the least known are to be found among the Lichens. They seem to have been used among peasant dyers from remote ages, but apparently none of the great French dyers used them, nor are they mentioned in any of the old books on dyeing. The only Lichen dyes that are known generally among dyers are Orchil and Cudbear, and these are preparations of lichens, not the lichens themselves. They are still used in some quantity and are prepared rather elaborately. But a great many of the ordinary Lichens yield very good and permanent dyes. The Parmelia saxatilis and P. omphaloides, are largely used in the Highlands & West Ireland, for dyeing brown of all shades. No mordant is needed, and the colours produced are the fastest known. "Crottle," is the general name for Lichens, in Scotland. They are gathered off the rocks in July and August, dried in the sun, and used to dye wool, without any preparation. The crottle is put into the dye bath with a sufficient quantity of water, boiled up and allowed to cool and then boiled up with the wool until the shade required is got. This may take from one to three or four hours, as the dye is not rapidly taken up by the wool. Other dyers use it in the following way:--A layer of crottle, a layer of wool, and so on until the bath is full; fill up with cold water and bring to the boil, and boil till the colour is deep enough. Some of the finest browns are got in this way. The wool does not seem to be affected by keeping it in the dye a long time. A small quantity of acetic acid put in with the Lichen is said to assist in exhausting the colour.

The best known of the dye Lichens are Parmelia saxatilis, and Parmelia omphalodes, which are still largely used in Scotland and Ireland for dyeing wool for tweeds. The well known Harris tweed smell is partly due to the use of this dye.

The colour of the plant is no indication of the colorific power. That is often greatly modified by the conditions of its growth,--such as climate, elevation above the sea, nearness or distance from the sea, age, season when gathered, habitat. The best season for gathering most lichens, is late summer and autumn.

A general method for using lichens is suggested by Dr. Westring of Sweden, in his "Experiments on Lichens for Dyeing Wools and Silks." He says:

"The Lichens should be gathered after some days of rain, they can then be more easily detached from the rocks. They should be well washed, dried and reduced to a fine powder: 25 parts pure river water are added to 1 of powdered lichen, and 1 part of fresh quick lime to 10 parts powdered lichen. To 10? lbs. lichen ? 1/2 ? lb. sal ammoniac is sufficient when lime and sal ammoniac are used together. The vessel containing them should be kept covered for the first 2 or 3 days. Sometimes the addition of a little common salt or salt-petre will give greater lustre to the colours."

This method can be followed by anyone wishing to experiment with Lichens. Dr. Westring did not use a mordant as a rule. Where the same species of Lichen grows on both rocks and trees, the specimens taken from rocks give the better colours.

ORCHIL OR ARCHIL AND CUDBEAR are substantive or non mordant dyes, obtained from Lichens of various species of Roccella growing on rocks in the Canary Islands and other tropical and sub-tropical countries. They used to be made in certain parts of Great Britain from various lichens, but the manufacture of these has almost entirely disappeared. They have been known from early times as dyes. They give beautiful purples and reds, but the colour is not very fast. The dye is produced by the action of ammonia and oxygen upon the crushed Lichens or weeds as they are called. The early way of producing the colour was by treating the Lichen with stale urine and slaked lime, and this method was followed in Scotland. Orchil is applied to wool by the simple process of boiling it in a neutral or slightly acid solution of the colouring matter. 3% Sulphuric acid is a useful combination. Sometimes alum and tartar are used. It dyes slowly and evenly. It is used as a bottom for Indigo on wool and also for compound shades on wool and silk. For cotton and linen dyeing it is not used. It is rarely used by itself as the colour is fugitive, but by using a mordant of tin, the colour is made much more permanent.

"Archil is in general a very useful ingredient in dyeing; but as it is rich in colour, and communicates an alluring bloom, dyers are often tempted to abuse it, and to exceed the proportions that can add to the beauty, without, at the same time, injuring in a dangerous manner the permanence of the colours. Nevertheless, the colour obtained when solution of tin is employed, is less fugitive than without this addition."

RECIPES FOR DYEING WITH LICHENS.

For 6? 1/4 ? lbs. of wool. Dye baths may be used of varying strengths of from 10 to 50 oz. of Crotal. Raise the bath to the boil, and boil for an hour. A light tan shade is got by first dipping the wool in a strong solution of Crotal, a darker shade by boiling for half-an-hour, and a dark brown by boiling for two hours or so. It is better, however, to get the shade by altering the quantity of Crotal used. The addition of sufficient oil of vitriol to make the bath slightly acid will be an improvement. .

Gather the lichen off the rocks--it is best in winter. Put layers of lichen and wool alternately in a pot, fill up with water and boil until you get the desired tint. Too much crotal will make the wool a dark red brown, but a very pretty terra cotta red can be got. No mordant is required.

Mordant the wool with 3% of Bichromate of Potash, then boil with the lichen for 1 hour or more.

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