Indrani Perera

poet, publisher & mentor

Category: Projects

Dyeing Raffia With Tea

The basket weaving mania continues! Now I'm combining my love of natural dyeing with basket weaving by dyeing the raffia I'm using with things I can find in my kitchen cupboard.

I read about using tea bags as a natural dye in Rebecca Desnos' book, Botanical Colour at Your Fingertips. If you want to get into natural dyeing it's a great book to have.

Dyeing Raffia with Tea

10 tea bags

raffia

Place the raffia in a large bowl.

Put the tea bags on top.

Boil the kettle and our the hot water over it.

Let the raffia sit in the water for 24 hours.

Dry on the line in the shade.

April 23, 2018
Wood Polish

Once I had finished carving the letter opener I stared way back in January (can you believe it's April already?) I need to protect the wood with a nice polish.

I bet you know what's coming. That's right, I made the polish myself! And in a real breakthrough for me, it didn't even occur to me to go out and buy polish. In the past if I needed something i would go through a process of trying to buy it first before deciding to make it myself with the materials I already have.

Traditional wood polishes use gum turpentine because it penetrates into the wood taking the beeseax right into the grain. The beeswax then forms a waterproof and protective layer. I didn't have gum turps so I used what I had in the cupboard.

This polish is super simple and only uses natural beeswax and jojoba oils. The jojoba isn't brilliant as over time it can go bad but of all the oils you can use, it has a very long shelf life.

Wood Polish

Beeswax

Jojoba oil

Empty jar or tin

Fill the bottom pan of a double boiler with water.

In the top pan place a glass jug or jug.

Add the beeswax to a glass jug and melt over high heat.

Keep an eye on the water level in the bottom pan so it doesn't go dry.

Once the wax is melted add the jojoba.

Pour into your jar or tin.

To use

Apply with a soft cloth (I use an old cotton sock).

After 30 minutes polish with a clean cloth.

April 2, 2018
Natural Dyeing With Gum Leaves

I was so happy to get back to the Darebin Parklands recently so that I could forage eucalyptus leaves for natural dyeing. When I was last there, I'd seen some gorgeous gum leaves on the ground that were all mottled and multi-coloured. I'm not sure why they drop from the tree or how they get their colours but they were just so beautiful. I was inspired to try gum leaves by the beautiful wall hanging my friend Max made out of wool she had dyed herself.

I've already tried my hand at dyeing with sour grass flowers and acacia blossoms. I was keen to add some more colours to my rainbow of naturally dyed wool. I have this inkling of an idea that I want to make crochet something for myself to wear using wool I have dyed with plants I have foraged.

For this dye bath I recycled the water that had been used for eco dying some paper bundles. As well as water there were also aluminium tins and copper rods in the pot. I love the deep, deep brown colour I got for the dye water.

Dyeing With Eucalyptus Leaves

Big handful of gum leaves

Couple of litres of water

Stainless steel pot

Stainless steel bowl

50g wool

Bring the pot to the boil.

Simmer for a couple of hours.

Cool and strain into a stainless steel bowl.

Add your skein of wool.

Leave for at least 24 hours.

Rinse off excess dye.

Hand to dry in the shade.

Next: I'm going to try and dye with acacia pods. I'm hoping they're in season soon!

October 28, 2017
Rusty Goodness

My recent eco-dyeing adventure taught me that rust is good. It leaves the most amazing marks and impressions on fabric when you’re close contact printing. And I’m sure the rusty metal contributes its own properties to the dye pot, changing the colours of the plants used for dyeing.

I’d always viewed rusty items with distaste but now I’m seeing them in a whole new light. I was so excited to discover a couple of rusty aluminium tins that had been left on the balcony. In their previous life they had been pots for plants that have long since died. Not only do I have a new found love for rusty things, I also want to make things go rusty quickly so I can use them in my eco-dyeing. Luckily there’s a trick for that!

Creating Rust

Clean glass jar jar

Metal scraps

White vinegar

Throw some metal scraps (eg old nails, bottle tops, ring pulls etc) in the empty glass jar.

Fill to about half full.

Pour in vinegar until the metal is covered.

After a little bit, the vinegar will get all frothy.

When the froth dies down, put the lid on the jar and store for a eek or so.

Pour off the vinegar on to the compost heap.

Store the rusty metal in a clean jar. You don’t have to worry about it being dry – the more rust the better!

September 16, 2017
Pre Mordanting Cotton – Take Two

I finally made time to pre mordant my organic cotton scarves. You might remember I had a go a little while ago and got it wrong.

When you're dyeing fabric it's a case of opposites attract. Protein fibres like wool and silk dye beautifully with cellulose materials such as leaves, fruit, bark etc. Cotton on the other hand is a cellulose fibre which means dye from the vegetable matter won't stick to the fabric. You need to coat the surface of the fabric with a protein and then dye it.

India Flint's book, Eco Colour:Botanical Dyes For Beautiful Textiles mentions using alternating layers of ash and soy milk for premordanting cellulose fibres but doesn't give a lot of detail. Luckily there's always the internet! I found a couple of good articles that talk about pre mordanting. One of them suggests scouring the fabric to remove the chemicals which I didn't do because I'm using organic cotton. Interestingly this article mentioned pre-soaking the leaves etc in vinegar water and iron before using on your fabric. The results were pretty impressive.

I ended up combining the techniques from the above sources to create my own pre mordanting process. My basic process was soak the fabric in the mordant solution for 24 hours, line dry it and then cure for a week (or longer if you have time/are patient!). The more layers of ash then soy you do and the longer you cure the fabric the better.

I'll post the results here once I've dyed the fabric!

A big thank you must go out to the lovely Max for gifting me a big plastic bucket filled with ash from her fire. Thanks Max!

NOTE: never use your kitchen pots or utensils when you're doing natural dyeing, always use a separate set. Op shops are great places for old pots, bowls, spoons etc.

Ash Mordant

12 scoops ash

3 litres water

Large stainless steel pot or bucket

4 organic cotton scarves

Add the ash to your pot then carefully pour the water on top.

Stir gently.

Rinse scarves with water so that the ash water can penetrate the fibres easily.

Add the wet fabric to the dye pot and then soak for 24 hours. Give it a gentle swish when you can.

Remove the fabric from the pot and wring out the ash water.

Dry on the line, in the sun if possible.

Let cure for a week. I didn't have heaps of time so I only cured mine for 5 days.

The ash turned the scarves from white to a beige sort of colour. It will be interesting to see how the soy milk mordant effects the fabric.

Soy Mordant

1 litre unsweetened soy milk

5 litres water

Large stainless steel pot or bucket

4 organic cotton scarves

Add 1 litre of soy milk and 5 litres of water to your pot. I only used 3 litres this time as I didn't have a lot of fabric.

Wet your fabric and add it to the pot.

Soak for 24 hours. Give it a gentle swish when you can.

Remove the fabric from the pot and wring out the soy milk.

Dry on the line, in the sun if possible.

Let cure for a week.

August 26, 2017
Natural Dyeing with Oxalis and Bicarb

Combining hobbies is a passion of mine. Dyeing wool with flowers from the weed known as sour grass or oxalis happily combines nature, foraging, dyeing and eventually knitting or crochet. There's something so satisfying about delving deeper into the process of making and creating your own unique materials to craft with. There are a lot of beautifully dyed skeins of wool for sale in the shops but it's a lot more fun to forage for weeds and dye your own yarn!

My lovely friend Max got me onto dyeing with sour grass flowers. Once she did, I was driving everywhere, eyes peeled for the little yellow flowers. Thank goodness it's now spring and they're starting to bloom!

Oxalis flowers give a beautiful golden yellow colour. I've used a stainless steel pot to make my dye, if you use a copper or iron pot they will act as a mordant just like in eco-dyeing and change your final colour (I'm not sure to what as unfortunately I don't have those kinds of pots!). Adding bicarb of soda to the wool after it's been dyed with the sour grass flowers changes the colours. I read somewhere that oxalic acid can irritate the skin so if you're worried wear gloves when handling the dyed wool.

NOTE: never use your kitchen pots or utensils when you're doing natural dyeing, always use a separate set. Op shops are great places for old pots, bowls, spoons etc.

Oxalis Dyeing

2 cups of oxalis flowers

1 litre water

Large stainless steel saucepan

Large metal bowl

50g wool

Add the flowers and water to the saucepan.

Bring them to boil and simmer for 20 minutes.

Take off the heat and let the mixture cool down to warmish.

Strain the liquid into the bowl using the lid to stop the flowers going in.

Wet the wool and wring out the excess.

Add the wet wool to the bowl and soak overnight. The longer you soak, the stronger your colour.

Bicarb Additive

3tbsp bicarbonate of soda

2 tbsp water

Rinse the wool in warmish water until the water runs clear.

In a small bowl mix the bicarbonate soda and water to form a paste.

Drizzle the paste over the wool.

Watch the colours change magically.

When you're happy with the colours, rinse of the bi-carb paste and hang your wool to dry.

You can also use a paste made from iron tablets to change the colour of the wool. I didn't have any so I tried magnesium tablets but they didn't seem to have any effect.

I'm excited about discovering other additives in my kitchen cupboards that can change the colours of my dye. I love the idea of having one plant and getting many colours. I'm also going to try using acacia flowers to dye wool. There's plenty of them around at the moment!

August 17, 2017
Cotton Scarves

You may remember that a while ago I posted about eco-dyeing some organic cotton scarves. They were meant to be Christmas gifts but time got away from me and then it started to seem too hard. The good news is that I finally got around to dyeing them. It was the cooler weather that did it. My brain started to work again and fingers got itchy with the need to create. I was back once more at the kitchen stove, boiling an enormous pot filled with onion skins and bundles of cotton scarves wrapped around copper rods. Woo-hoo!

I was hesitant about soaking the scarves in soy milk – I'd never done it before and didn't know how much to use or how long to leave it. So instead I made up a vinegar solution and soaked the scarves overnight (I think?! I was flying by the seat of my pants and didn't really take notes!). I've used vinegar in the past when working with commercial dyes. But now that I think about it, only to set the dye afterwards. Oops! On those occasions I used washing soda as the pre mordant. Oh well, carry on :o)

Eco dyeing combines two of my passions. Nature and craft. Foraging for leaves and then bundling them in cloth to create patterns and dye? It's alchemy. Pure and simple.

Being barefoot outdoors, breathing in fresh air and surrounded by space is medicine for my soul. I feel calm and grounded. I get so much pleasure wandering through the bush, searching for the right trees for my craft creations. Eco dyeing is teaching me to pay close attention to the natural world. To look at the individual trees and see different varieties instead of a sea of green. Now I am starting to recognise different trees. Olive, mulberry, kangaroo apple and cineria.

In spite of my pre mordanting mishap, I'm pretty happy with the result. I think the scarves look like beautiful autumn leaves. Perfect for this time of year!

After this successful dyeing I'm keen to try pre mordanting the cotton in soy milk and see if there are any differences. If I was being a good scientific crafter, I'd mordant some scarves in soy, some in vinegar, use the same leaf matter and set two different pots going at the same time. However, I'm not that scientific and I'm also really keen to try and get some purples and pinks in my next attempt. So science will just have to wait. The creative muse is a-calling!

April 13, 2017
Knit One, Purl One

I thought I'd celebrate my return to blogging with a bit of a spring clean of the old blog. I've had a ball of wool as my favicon for a while now but haven't knitted in an awfully long time. It was time to change it to something new. No false advertising here!

And the funny thing was, just after I made the decision to remove the knitting reference I wandered into a shop and bought a new ball of wool. I adore this wool – it's Cleckheaton California 8ply. I love watching the colours change as I knit. My last project never got finished. It was because I just didn't like the way the stripes looked as I knitted. I know that now as I am knitting with this wool every spare chance I get. At the park while the girls play with their friends and at the dinner table while I wait for them to finish eating (which can take a very long time as they love to chat while the food goes cold!).

I'm trying (again) to knit a pair of fingerless gloves. I'm using this arm warmer pattern from Gina Michelle that I've adapted slightly. Not knowing a lot about knitting I grabbed this pattern off Ravelry cos it looked pretty easy. I didn't know what worsted wool was or what size my knitting needles are so I've had to adapt the pattern through trial and error.

I'm on my seventh or eight attempt to get it right. But I am determined to get them finished this winter! Amazing what the right ball of wool can do! I'll let you know how I go :o)

July 14, 2016
Homemade, Fermented Mustard

It feels so good to be back in the kitchen. It really feels like the heart of my home and I am so happy when I am making delicious and nutritious food for my family to eat.

I love making things myself. Instead of buying little jars of pesto and bottles of salad dressing at the supermarket, I prefer homemade. No preservatives, the best ingredients I can afford and of course, fresh! Not to mention all the benefits of using your hands to make the things you need. It really satisfies my hands, head and heart when I make it myself 🙂

I recently made homemade, fermented mustard. The recipe by Kirsten K Shockey came from Issue 10: Seed, of the fabulous Taproot magazine. I read this article a long time ago and always wanted to make it. I’m so pleased that I finally did!

Making mustard was really easy. There was a moment of doubt when I placed all the ingredients in the blender, pressed start and nothing seemed to happen. Then after a little while, the mixture began to thicken until I had my very own mustard. I can’t believe how simple it was and how much mustard I made with only a couple of cups of ingredients. I love the alchemy of the kitchen – magically turning raw ingredients into something delicious!

Then it was just a matter of sealing up my little jars for three days to ferment, adding some vinegar and then done! As Kirsten says in the article, mustard doesn’t need to be fermented but its nice to add some extra-good fermenty goodness to the mix. I made the three little jars of yellow mustard and the Lovely G made the big jar of horseradish mustard which my oldest girl devours.

It’s so wonderful to have homemade, fermented mustard with our winter Sunday roasts!

June 30, 2016
A Heart of Green

Hello! It's so nice to be back here, blogging again. Hope you've been well 🙂

There's a definite chill in the air. A couple of weeks ago it even got to -1 C here in Melbourne overnight.

The colder weather has got me making and writing again. It has even got me back in the kitchen baking and cooking. I'm craving hearty stews, soups and casseroles. Anything that is hot, filling and sticks to the ribs.

I've also become really excited about sprouting on the kitchen window sill. Takes so little space and hardly any effort. I love the rhythm of rinsing and draining the sprouts each morning and evening. Waiting for the seeds to sprout is very exciting and it's so satisfying when they do. A little bit of green magic in the heart of winter!

I turned my lentil sprouts (I also sprouted alfalfa) into this delicious stir fry from the excellent cookbook, Hugh's Three Good Things by Hugh Fearnley Whittingstall. It was delicious! The only thing I would change is to have less cashews next time.

What are you cooking this winter?

June 16, 2016