Hint:Jim
Tyrian
Logwood.
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OK, Jim.
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You wanted to see me about your textile design project.
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That's right.
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I've been looking at how a range of natural dyes can be used to colour fabrics like cotton and wool.
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Why did you choose that topic?
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Well, I got a lot of useful ideas from the museum,
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you know, at that exhibition of textiles.
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But I've always been interested in anything to do with colour.
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Years ago, I went to a carpet shop with my parents when we were on holiday in Turkey,
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and I remember all the amazing colours.
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They might not all have been natural dyes.
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Maybe not, but for the project I decided to follow it up.
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And I found a great book about a botanic garden in California that specialises in plants used for dyes.
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Ok, so, in your project, you had to include a practical investigation.
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Yeah.
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At first I couldn't decide on my variables.
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I was going to just look at one type of fibre for example, like cotton…
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and see how different types of dyes affected it?
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Yes.
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Then I decided to include others as well,
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so I looked at cotton and wool and nylon.
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With just one type of dye?
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Various types, including some that weren't natural, for comparison.
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OK.
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So, I did the experiments last week.
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I used some ready-made natural dyes.
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I found a website which supplied them,
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they came in just a few days, but I also made some of my own.
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That must have taken quite a bit of time.
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I'd thought it'd just be a matter of a teaspoon or so of dye,
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and actually that wasn't the case at all.
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Like I was using one vegetable, beetroot, for a red dye,
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and I had to chop up a whole pile of it.
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So it all took longer than I'd expected.
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One possibility is to use food colourings.
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I did use one.
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That was a yellow dye, an artificial one.
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Tartrazine?
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Yeah. I used it on cotton first.
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It came out a great colour,
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but when I rinsed the material, the colour just washed away.
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I'd been going to try it out on nylon, but I abandoned that idea.
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Were you worried about health issues?
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I'd thought if it's a legal food colouring, it must be safe.
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Well, it can occasionally cause allergic reactions, I believe.
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So what natural dyes did you look at?
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Well, one was turmeric.
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The colour's great, it's a really strong yellow.
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It's generally used in dishes like curry.
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It's meant to be quite good for your health when eaten,
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but you might find it's not permanent when it's used as a dye -
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a few washes, and it's gone.
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Right, I used beetroot as a dye for wool.
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When I chop up beetroot to eat I always end up with bright red hands,
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but the wool ended up just a sort of watery cream shade. Disappointing.
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There's a natural dye called Tyrian purple. Have you heard of that?
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Yes. It comes from a shellfish,
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and it was worn in ancient times but only by important people as it was so rare.
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I didn't use it.
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It fell out of use centuries ago,
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though one researcher managed to get hold of some recently.
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But that shade of purple can be produced by chemical dyes nowadays.
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Did you use any black dyes?
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Logwood.
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That was quite complicated.
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I had to prepare the fabric so the dye would take.
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I hope you were careful to wear gloves.
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Yes. I know the danger with that dye.
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Good. It can be extremely dangerous if it's ingested.
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Now, presumably you had a look at an insect-based dye? Like cochineal, for example?
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Yes. I didn't actually make that,
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I didn't have time to start crushing up insects to get the red colour
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and anyway they're not available here,
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but I managed to get the dye quite easily from a website.
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But it cost a fortune.
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I can see why it's generally just used in cooking, and in small quantities.
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Yes, it's very effective, but that's precisely why it's not used as a dye.
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I also read about using metal oxide.
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Apparently you can allow iron to rust while it's in contact with the fabric, and that colours it.
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Yes, that works well for dying cotton.
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But you have to be careful as the metal can actually affect the fabric
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and so you can't expect to get a lot of wear out of fabrics treated in this way.
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And the colours are quite subtle, not everyone likes them.
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Anyway, it looks as if you've done a lot of work…
