JOHN MARSHALL:
works in fabric
Make Your Own
NATURAL PIGMENT DYES
MINERAL PIGMENTS AS NATURAL DYES
by John Marshall©
Can't get that Georgia red clay out of your new white jeans? You've just discovered a wonderful natural colorant, right under your very own...knees.
Pigments are a great source of natural colors, boasting a long and illustrious association with textiles. Traditional bingata dyeing of Okinawa, to site just one example, stands out proudly.
Bingata utilizes a paste resist process (katazome or tsutsugaki techniques) to define the pattern or images. Areas are often undercoated with vegetable dyes, applied cold, and then overlaid with pigments. Pigments do not make use of mordants. Instead, they are encouraged to make a lasting bond with the fiber through a protein based medium. While there are many sources for this protein, such as the milk in cassein paints, soy is the most versatile, forming a friendly relationship with natural fibers.
To make your pigments, any pretty colored dirt or rust will do. Avoid those that glow in the dark, collected near restricted areas.
If dirt, make a muddy slurry by adding water,
allow to stand for just a moment and pour off the top three quarters
of the mixture. Most of the rocks and nails will have settled
out into the bottom one quarter.
Thin the mixture a little more, stirring thoroughly, allow to
sit, and again, pour off the top three quarters. Continue in this
manner until you have a rather thin mixture, free of pebbles,
worms, and assorted vegetable matter.
Allow to sit over night, then decant as much liquid, which should
be fairly clear, as possible without disturbing the sediment.
Allow the sediment to dry. It can be stored away indefinitely
for future use.
See how many different colors of dirt you can collect on your
journeys!
To make a rust pigment, have a nail drive.
Yes! Encourage every youngster and oldster in the neighborhood
to save for you every tortured nail they come across, found in
the road or in their bike tire, it matters not. Take an old coffee
or paint can, filled with water, drop the nails in and forget
about them for a few months. What have you got? Rusty nails!
Cover the can, shake well (add water if most of it has evaporated)
to make orange colored water. Pour off the liquid, allow to sit
for just a moment to allow the chunks to settle, and decant the
top three quarters. Allow to dry and you have a high quality rust
pigment.
Use your imagination, why stop at iron when there is a world of
copper and other metals to explore?
Once you have a high quality pigment in
hand, you'll need to add the soy milk.
Take a handful of dry soy beans, soak in water until fully swollen,
and rinse. Fill your blender approximately one quarter full with
the swollen bean, adding clean water to the fill line. Blend on
high for around three minutes and then strain through a cloth
to remove the crumbles. What you have left is unadulterated soy
milk. Aim for a consistency similar to 2% milk.
Add a little soy milk to the pigment, thinning the solution gradually
with the soy until you have a solution of whole milk consistency.
This is your dye.
You will achieve best results if you layer the pigment in thin coats to achieve the tone you are after, rather than caking the colors on. What cakes on, cakes off.
The soy pigment mixture will need to be set, but not through steaming. Simply leave it alone to cure. The longer you allow it to rest before molesting it further, the better quality washable and dry-cleanable product you will have. If using a resist to create patterns, allow to cure for around two months before washing.
Happy dyeing!
Originally appeared in Turkey Red Journal
copyright John Marshall, 1992