the red

finally red. the way to get it is to raise the PH to 11 with soda ash.

then putting a piece of open weave cotton in it to absorb the red dye. notice i say dye as there's a lot of confussion on the internet between dye and pigment. do yourself a favor and get the butrop/ellis dye book. you'll never dye the same way again. ask me how i know.

 the photo gave me a chuckle as it looks like the painting flaming june which is in the ponce museum of art in puerto rico.

after a 24 hour soak the cotton blanket has absorbed the red and is this gorgeous shocking pink. so far excellent. maybe it doesn't need to soak for that long, need to check on that.

 right. now i want to dye silk. silk put directly in the bath absorbs both the red and the traces of yellow still in the petals and dyes corals. so the trick is to disccarge the wonderful schiaparelli pink in acidulated water. you're aming PH6. bless the inventor of litmus paper, a great deal more efficient and precise than my digi PH meter which has to be calibrated every time and sometimes gives incorrect readings.

 you need to rinse the color  blanket before putting it in the acidulated bath or else yellow will transfer to the bath as well.

et voila mesdames! a soft pink silk skein. have some other skeins waiting to be dyed, aiming for deeper color. that's why one needs plenty of dyestuffs.

neki desu 

 

cherry magic

weather has reverted to normal, meaning mid 20s during the day and cool nights. and alas rain!

it shows. 

gardening is followed by a matcha fizz idea

 shared by a woman i met at an artisan fair

 last weekend.

she's a tea barista, she calls herself a tea sommelier,

trained in Japan. another japanophile otaku to  share the fever    (￣ω￣ )

 

neki desu 

 

commited to benibana

as with everything else one needs time and plenty of materials  to study them without being afraid to blow it or waste them. learning procesess are based on those peremises.

here's 150 grams of benibana after one day and  numerous rinsisngs. a great amount of yellow has been washed out, but still there's considerable.

 one more day soaked overnight and there's less ,but still enough to give corals,it is amazing how much yellow benibana contains. dyeing red is very laborious and in a world full of haste it's not going to be popular.if one can add a teaspon of nescafe to hot water and get coffee why bother.

 after so many years of winging dyeing i am now taking notes, weighing  and checking the PH.

i got results with the no method,but i wasnt aware of the whys the hows. now my aim is more that of understanding the dye and the different ways it reacts.

i guess age comes with definite bonuses.

neki desu