Adventures in Natural Dyeing: Black Walnut, Part 1
Saturday night, I was lounging on the couch, knitting my socks, when John informed me that we have about a dozen black walnut trees on the back tree line and if you're not careful they stain your fingers. I believe he was telling me not to play with them, and at the same time wondering how long it will take for the dye to come off, but all I heard was "dye" and I immediately got the idea into my head that I am ready to start natural dyeing. I did a search for "natural dyeing black walnuts" and came up with some blog posts and other sites with the info. Since it doesn't take any mordants, I figured that this would be a great way to get started.
I guess I could back up just a little bit. Around Christmas time last year, I decided that I wanted to learn how to dye naturally and I added a couple books on the subject* to my Amazon wishlist. John bought them for me, and I started to plan out my dye garden in my head. I should also note that I am not a very good gardener, and I'm sure there will be more on that later as I try to take that more seriously, but for now, planting things to harvest just isn't in the cards. Even the onions we planted for him to eat (that I figured I could steal the skins from) didn't grow larger than a quarter. Oh well, back to this weekend.
While John was out running some errands, I grabbed a five-gallon bucket and headed out to the tree line to harvest walnuts. I gathered everything I could reach from about three trees, before my bucket was full and I headed back to the house to get started. I didn't have all of the supplies I needed, so I had to run out and get a stock pot and some other supplies. Two trips later, I hope I have everything I need.
I spent at least 3 hours husking walnuts. Why is it that none of the blog posts that I read about dyeing with black walnuts didn't mention anything about how painful this process is? Maybe I'm the only one crazy enough to try to save the nuts rathan than just use the whole thing for the dyestuff. Oh well, three hours later, after dark, I ended up with a bucket of walnut husks and a big bowl of walnuts.
I set the seeds aside to finish drying out and I'll figure out how to get the nuts out of them later, and I filled up the bucket with water. The recipe calls for covering the bucket and letting the mixture ferment for at least three weeks. I hope I can hold out that long. I didn't have a lid for the bucket, so for now it's covered with plastic wrap, so I can see it bubbling already. That reminds me, I need to get John a new bucket and get a lid to go with it. And in case you were wondering, I ended up with a very small stain on one of my thumbs, but that's all. I must have poked a whole in my gloves one of the times that my knife slipped a bit. Thank goodness I was wearing gloves though, or my hands could be much worse.
* Harvesting Color: How to Find Plants and Make Natural Dyes and The Complete Guide to Natural Dyeing
I guess I could back up just a little bit. Around Christmas time last year, I decided that I wanted to learn how to dye naturally and I added a couple books on the subject* to my Amazon wishlist. John bought them for me, and I started to plan out my dye garden in my head. I should also note that I am not a very good gardener, and I'm sure there will be more on that later as I try to take that more seriously, but for now, planting things to harvest just isn't in the cards. Even the onions we planted for him to eat (that I figured I could steal the skins from) didn't grow larger than a quarter. Oh well, back to this weekend.
While John was out running some errands, I grabbed a five-gallon bucket and headed out to the tree line to harvest walnuts. I gathered everything I could reach from about three trees, before my bucket was full and I headed back to the house to get started. I didn't have all of the supplies I needed, so I had to run out and get a stock pot and some other supplies. Two trips later, I hope I have everything I need.
I spent at least 3 hours husking walnuts. Why is it that none of the blog posts that I read about dyeing with black walnuts didn't mention anything about how painful this process is? Maybe I'm the only one crazy enough to try to save the nuts rathan than just use the whole thing for the dyestuff. Oh well, three hours later, after dark, I ended up with a bucket of walnut husks and a big bowl of walnuts.
I set the seeds aside to finish drying out and I'll figure out how to get the nuts out of them later, and I filled up the bucket with water. The recipe calls for covering the bucket and letting the mixture ferment for at least three weeks. I hope I can hold out that long. I didn't have a lid for the bucket, so for now it's covered with plastic wrap, so I can see it bubbling already. That reminds me, I need to get John a new bucket and get a lid to go with it. And in case you were wondering, I ended up with a very small stain on one of my thumbs, but that's all. I must have poked a whole in my gloves one of the times that my knife slipped a bit. Thank goodness I was wearing gloves though, or my hands could be much worse.
* Harvesting Color: How to Find Plants and Make Natural Dyes and The Complete Guide to Natural Dyeing