cow parsley yellow and red bird

the top half has been dyed in a cow parsley dye this morning; the fresh cow parsley (flowers, stem and leaves) was chopped, water and tartaric acid were added, this concoction was brought to the boil , then simmered for appr. half an hour and the cotton went straight in and left to simmer for another half hour (no mordant) washed with water and soap, dried and ironed a very bright yellow.
Instructions came from an incomplete recipe from Hilde Vleugels 'Natuurlijke vezels verven met planten', as mentioned in earlier posts.



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Comments

jan said…
Hello, I've just come from a demonstration at the Yorkshire Sculpture Park, where a woman who dyes wool using plants told me about cow parsley. What amazed me, was that when I was a child, cow parsley was known as 'mothers die', and that if you picked it your mother would die! I realise now, that it was actually 'mother DYE'! Cow parsley is the 'mother of all dyes' ! Jan

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