Two Blues Two Weeks Later

Two weeks ago I began my 1st experiment using natural dyes, see here.

This morning the jars of fermenting iris water revealed their true colors.

Keep in mind

I did not use a pre-mordant (since I didn't have any on hand, and I was eager to just Do It!)

Das Results:

After 2 weeks.

Jar on Right contains Iris flowers without any brown fading bits from the plant 

Jar on Left contains both fresh and fading Iris flowers.

 Silk "After"

Right is result of silk submerged in Iris flower water without brown faded bits from the plant

 Left is silk submerged in both fresh and fading Iris flowers.

I can only presume that by including faded flowers to the dye water caused the lack a resulting blue/purple color. It's a nice grey. I'll use that piece to overdye with other plant materials later.

The experiments continued

India Flint suggested that I try "ice flower" dyeing. 

The following pictures tell a story of that experiment.

Frozen Iris flowers

Frozen flowers covered with water

Silk Before

After

 Next I decided to overdye the Iris "ice flower"silk using frozen Rhododendron 'Roseum Elegans'

After

The Rhododendron flowers created a pale yellow and diffused the previous darker blue/purple marks.

Fun.