a few weeks ago in one of the dyeing lists deb mcclintock published her doings with lichens.
i remembered i had some survivors from my throwing away rampages that could easily qualify as antiques. locating them was not too hard, but their state was doubtful. they were still attached to pieces of wood and rocks( ok in the early days we were young and not environmentally aware, remember?) the clumps dry and brittle and to the touch some disintegrated into dust.
half the job done as they would not need to pass the mortar pestle routine! cleaned all the dirt and foreign matter and put them in a plastic jar with ammonia.
a month later i needed 100 ends to complete the summer top warp and threw them in a pot with warm distilled water and some of the lichen liquid.the liquid as you can see in the photo is reddish brown sort of mahogany color. i was expecting more red or at least less brown , but after this soak i'll try and shift the color towards red with some lime juice. if worse comes to worst i'll make do with the color as is. don't think it will look totally bad with the rest of the warp.
neki desu
neki, i have a box of jars of lichen magic...gifted to me 30 years ago. i've opened one, the others are sitting there...labels have fallen off, most look to be brown now, lids rusted, congealed to the glass...
ReplyDeleteMi stupisci sempre con le tue 'concoctions' non vedo l'ora di vedere i risultati!
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