Experiment: Veggie Dyes for Tinting Ruffs
Stand back, I'm doing Science!
As I mentioned last week, I set out to do some experimentin' this weekend. The question: Would starch tinted with beets wash clean out of linen?
So yesterday I started out by making some dye according to the directions posted on the site in the original post linked above (if you haven't already you really should read that post first so you know what I'm on about here): I shredded some beets up in my cuisinart, brought some water to a boil, threw in the shredded beets and let them boil for about 20 minutes. Then I strained out the beet bits (which had turned a pale orange!) and put the resulting colored water in a jar.
And since I had some on hand (and they were mentioned in the picture posted on the link about veggie dyes) I chopped up a big bunch of organic carrot tops (or greens, whatever you want to call it - the green fronds that grow out of the heads of your carrots), only I boiled them for longer because it didn't seem like the water was really taking any kind of color from them. After closer to 45 minutes I strained them out and put the resulting colored water in a jar. I have to admit that at this point I wasn't particularly impressed with the shade, but I resolved to soldier on. Besides, the stated experiment was for the beets, the carrot tops were just for fun.
That's beet on the left and carrot tops on the right.
Next I boiled up two batches of starch. I suppose I could have done just one, but I hadn't washed the pot well enough after boiling the carrot greens and the starch had a very faint greenish tinge (which doesn't even show up in pictures) and I thought it safer to just make a separate batch for the beet experiment.
The starch I thought was looking a little greenish is on the right, but it's really not even worth mentioning as it's so faint.
After boiling my starch for an hour or so I dumped in the coloring agents. I dumped all of the carrot top water into the one on the right, and about half of the beet water into the one on the left.
The carrot top color had started to look a little greener, which was gratifying.
While that was boiling I ran upstairs and made some happy fun test ruffs. Yeah, I could have just tested it on some scraps of linen, but these took me about 5 minutes and would be a much closer approximation, including teeny little pleats where tinted starch might hide from soapy water.
Do not mock happy fun test ruffs.
After letting the tinted starch cool for a bit I worked it into my test ruffs and hung them up. Also, a little bit too late it occurred to me to also do a test piece of linen with tinting but no starch. I took a strip of linen and dipped it in the beet water. Since I'd poured all of the carrot top water into the starch I only had a couple of droplets left in the jar to put on the test scrap for that one.
That's beet on the left, and carrot top on the right:
I was surprised at how faint the color was! I expected it to be much more vibrant on the linen than it was. You can barely even detect the green on the one with the carrot top starch. Although...working the carrot top starch into the fabric is the closest I've ever come to nausea while starching. Let's just say that the effect of green tinting in something with a starch-like texture was somewhat...mucus-y.
I left them to dry overnight, and in the morning the beet had dried a bit streaky (I wasn't monitoring and working them regularly since I wasn't doing the experiment to make pretty ruffs, but instead to see if it would wash out, so I figured it didn't matter whether they were streaky or not) and a bit brownish. Not exactly the red or purple result I would have hoped for if I were doing it in earnest to tint my ruff, but I imagine that expert dyers have tricks for adjusting the color. The beet test strip, however, was a lovely shade of pink. I found it interesting that adding the beet juice to starch caused the color to be moderated. The carrot top coloring had gotten a little more visible once dried, but not much.
Carrot greens tint on the top, beet on the bottom:
I threw them on top of some white linen for the pics so you can get some idea of how faint the coloring is.
So then I set them a little bit with my setting stick. What? It seemed like an incomplete experiment if I didn't treat them just like a ruff would be treated.
Carrot greens on the top, beet on the bottom (test strip beside each one):
And then I washed them with some Woolite (a mild laundry detergent) in my bathroom sink. You'll never guess what happened. Go on. Guess.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
Ok, here we go, results:
That's carrot greens on the top, and beet on the bottom.
Look at the beet one! It's perfectly white! The beet washed completely out - including from the test strip! And the carrot top mellowed into a lovely shade of yellow, but was NOT going to wash out no matter how long I scrubbed it. The shade is so lovely, in fact, that I'd consider using carrot tops to dye linen if I had some white linen that I wanted to be a pretty, sunny shade of yellow that I know won't wash out. In fact, if you look at the carrot top test strip, which was done without any starch but only about 2-3 drops of the carrot-top-water, you can barely see any color on it before I washed it, and afterwards it's a vibrant sunny shade.
So, to sum up: Beetroot - very plausible for tinting ruffs. Carrot top - not at all plausible for tinting ruffs since it doesn't wash out, but creates a lovely shade of yellow on white linen without any mordant whatsoever.
For those who are interested, here is my previous post on using cochineal to tint a ruff. The color is much more purple/pink than what I got with beet, but I suspect that further experimentation with beets could produce different shades.
As I mentioned last week, I set out to do some experimentin' this weekend. The question: Would starch tinted with beets wash clean out of linen?
So yesterday I started out by making some dye according to the directions posted on the site in the original post linked above (if you haven't already you really should read that post first so you know what I'm on about here): I shredded some beets up in my cuisinart, brought some water to a boil, threw in the shredded beets and let them boil for about 20 minutes. Then I strained out the beet bits (which had turned a pale orange!) and put the resulting colored water in a jar.
And since I had some on hand (and they were mentioned in the picture posted on the link about veggie dyes) I chopped up a big bunch of organic carrot tops (or greens, whatever you want to call it - the green fronds that grow out of the heads of your carrots), only I boiled them for longer because it didn't seem like the water was really taking any kind of color from them. After closer to 45 minutes I strained them out and put the resulting colored water in a jar. I have to admit that at this point I wasn't particularly impressed with the shade, but I resolved to soldier on. Besides, the stated experiment was for the beets, the carrot tops were just for fun.
That's beet on the left and carrot tops on the right.
Next I boiled up two batches of starch. I suppose I could have done just one, but I hadn't washed the pot well enough after boiling the carrot greens and the starch had a very faint greenish tinge (which doesn't even show up in pictures) and I thought it safer to just make a separate batch for the beet experiment.
The starch I thought was looking a little greenish is on the right, but it's really not even worth mentioning as it's so faint.
After boiling my starch for an hour or so I dumped in the coloring agents. I dumped all of the carrot top water into the one on the right, and about half of the beet water into the one on the left.
The carrot top color had started to look a little greener, which was gratifying.
While that was boiling I ran upstairs and made some happy fun test ruffs. Yeah, I could have just tested it on some scraps of linen, but these took me about 5 minutes and would be a much closer approximation, including teeny little pleats where tinted starch might hide from soapy water.
Do not mock happy fun test ruffs.
After letting the tinted starch cool for a bit I worked it into my test ruffs and hung them up. Also, a little bit too late it occurred to me to also do a test piece of linen with tinting but no starch. I took a strip of linen and dipped it in the beet water. Since I'd poured all of the carrot top water into the starch I only had a couple of droplets left in the jar to put on the test scrap for that one.
That's beet on the left, and carrot top on the right:
I was surprised at how faint the color was! I expected it to be much more vibrant on the linen than it was. You can barely even detect the green on the one with the carrot top starch. Although...working the carrot top starch into the fabric is the closest I've ever come to nausea while starching. Let's just say that the effect of green tinting in something with a starch-like texture was somewhat...mucus-y.
I left them to dry overnight, and in the morning the beet had dried a bit streaky (I wasn't monitoring and working them regularly since I wasn't doing the experiment to make pretty ruffs, but instead to see if it would wash out, so I figured it didn't matter whether they were streaky or not) and a bit brownish. Not exactly the red or purple result I would have hoped for if I were doing it in earnest to tint my ruff, but I imagine that expert dyers have tricks for adjusting the color. The beet test strip, however, was a lovely shade of pink. I found it interesting that adding the beet juice to starch caused the color to be moderated. The carrot top coloring had gotten a little more visible once dried, but not much.
Carrot greens tint on the top, beet on the bottom:
I threw them on top of some white linen for the pics so you can get some idea of how faint the coloring is.
So then I set them a little bit with my setting stick. What? It seemed like an incomplete experiment if I didn't treat them just like a ruff would be treated.
Carrot greens on the top, beet on the bottom (test strip beside each one):
And then I washed them with some Woolite (a mild laundry detergent) in my bathroom sink. You'll never guess what happened. Go on. Guess.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
Ok, here we go, results:
That's carrot greens on the top, and beet on the bottom.
Look at the beet one! It's perfectly white! The beet washed completely out - including from the test strip! And the carrot top mellowed into a lovely shade of yellow, but was NOT going to wash out no matter how long I scrubbed it. The shade is so lovely, in fact, that I'd consider using carrot tops to dye linen if I had some white linen that I wanted to be a pretty, sunny shade of yellow that I know won't wash out. In fact, if you look at the carrot top test strip, which was done without any starch but only about 2-3 drops of the carrot-top-water, you can barely see any color on it before I washed it, and afterwards it's a vibrant sunny shade.
So, to sum up: Beetroot - very plausible for tinting ruffs. Carrot top - not at all plausible for tinting ruffs since it doesn't wash out, but creates a lovely shade of yellow on white linen without any mordant whatsoever.
For those who are interested, here is my previous post on using cochineal to tint a ruff. The color is much more purple/pink than what I got with beet, but I suspect that further experimentation with beets could produce different shades.