While watering the gardens today, I noticed some of the Poke Berries around my yard were ready to be picked. My plan is to use them as a dye, though I have not had a lot of success in the past doing so. The color is just beyond beautiful, almost florescent, unfortunately the color is not light or colorfast and washes out easily or fades to a brown color. I have researched this problem with poke berry dye before and have tried several things to remedy the problem but to no avail. This year I will experiment with a couple of different mordants to see if I have a better success rate. I have had some success staining wood with the berries though, and I plan to dye some woodturnings to see how they hold up after being finished.
So, I picked the berries and decided to freeze them till I had enough to do my experimenting with. As more become ripe I will add them to the bag till I get what I need or come across some info on a success story dyeing with the berries.
Fall is a great time of year to collect dyeing material. Some of my favorites are Black Walnut Hulls and Goldenrod Flowers.
Alan...........what a fun thing to do! We can all learn something from reading this blog. Add photos, lots of photos.
ReplyDeleteKtBug