Monday, October 10, 2011

Black Walnut report



A week ago I collected black walnuts so I could try dyeing fabric with them.

The results are interesting, if not very pretty, and I found you can make some brown fabrics fairly easily.

You can look back to the blogs from October 6 and 7 to see the process.
The piece on the left came from the bucket that had the "rinse water" in it.  The piece on the right was in the bucket that had the liquid created by combining hot water with the husks from the walnuts.   This liquid looked much darker, and I assumed the fabric would turn out darker accordingly -- but that didn't happen.    I can see very little difference in the two pieces.


I think these two pieces have more interest and now I wish I had made more of them.  I made them by wrapping them around the husks that were left over after pouring out the liquid in the kettle.

I saved the nuts, and once I get them cracked open, I think there will be a black walnut cake in our future.

Thanks to Kathy Loomis for the inspiration to try this! 


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2 comments:

Kathleen Loomis said...

Hi Marcia! glad the idea got you going! I stil haven't washed out all my experiments but I think I agree with you -- (a) the plain brown isn't very pretty and (b) I like the details you get by wrapping the husks in the fabric. I didn't save any nuts so no cake in my future -- hope yours turns out great!

Karen S Musgrave said...

Makes me want to battle my squirrels! Thanks for sharing. Karen Musgrave