pomegranate, a

preparing, yesterday

everything out, on the table

skeining thin crochet yarn

waiting for inspiration. sometimes even just looking at these books does it... india flints eco colour and J. Liles, with very different approach, alchemy in the meeting of opposites
I decided to start with an ash water soak, and think about protein later. at the same time, I was trying to decide which kind of tannin yellow I want to dye an old sheet with stains, for a storytelling project. The sheet went into the lye bath, Rumex roots gathered last year....too much work to grind them, and they would need soaking. I could gather schinus tops and kermes acorns...too brownish, too lazy

and I remembered that I had a bag of pomegranates, drying, from last year
suddenly a flurry of activity! I dug out those pomefranates, they were dry but springy, not hard, with the seeds still in them. I poured warm water over them, it immediately turned dark red...beautiful. there is some gauze soaking in that first juice, to be solar dyed

when the rinds were softer, I chopped them up. I took the sheet out of the ashwater after a couple of hours and I hung it out to dry.

later, I put it in the dyepot after adding more water to the very dark pomegranate juice. it immediately took up colour (the greenish tinge I think is from the fluorescent light)

I decided not to boil it, just simmered very gently for a couple of hours. I didn't mind it not being dyed evenly so I left all the rinds and seeds in the pot, where the sheet was really jammed in. a kind of bundle. I turned off the heat and left it there all night
this is what came out of that pot, golden in the first light of day. It is a cheating picture, of course, this is straight out of the pot, still wet, unrinsed, in the lovely early morning light. the colour is so beautiful, I had to share.
it will get browner as it dries, and I've seen some tannic yellows get darker with time. I'll show you what happens.
this is all very exciting, the bath still looks strong, I will try for some greys and blacks with rusty metalthis is the acropolis in dust from Africa. The south wind is the reason winter bypassed us this year. we'll see

I sowed Isatis tinctoria, woad,yesterday, seeds, in the old vegetable plot. It rained lightly in the evening- how's that for a good omen?

oh, yes- i did check the ph of all the liquids (new set of ph papers)

the ashwater: 9-10

pomegranate liquid 5-6

dyebath: 7, with unrinsed but dried ash soaked sheet in it

today the dyebath is a definite 6

I'll let it stand with the rinds and seeds in it to see what happens.