I see red!

[mmy_me]

I've had a nice day playing with colour and my garden.

I am getting a pair of boots, based on a type found at Boringholm. Another pair from Helgeandsholmen were apparently red, and that appeals to me. I've not been able to find anything concrete on how to use madder to dye/stain leather, so extrapolating and playing around I've been making a

Comments

[cataragon]

There are several descriptions of red (and blue) coloured boots in some of the Russian stuff I've looked at, but it's difficult to establish definite information and comparative validity of research, due to the language/translation barrier.

I believe one of the sources I'm thinking of was the English book about the Novgorod digs, but I'd have to check it, and I'm a bit busy at the moment.

My understanding was that the leather was more painted than dyed, although I'm unsure what the medium was.

Anyway, I'm not sure if that's relevant to you, or not, but I found it interesting because previously I'd been told repeatedly that browns and blacks were really the only leather colour options.

[mmy_me]

Thanks. Yeah, apparently that idea that shoes were 'only brown' and 'only black' pops up every so often. They were really 'mostly brown or black', but other colours turn up a lot too. In one of my books I have an overview over the most common colours on church paintings in Scandinavia, and there are red, yellow, blue and green shoes.

In any case, I know that red boots is appropriate. I even know that they were made red with madder. What I don't know is how they got the madder pigment to stick to the leather. Obviously painting it on like a waterpaint has the effect of it coming off like water paint when it gets wet. Not so useful for shoes that will be used outside. Some other transfer method is needed.

Possibly, as talking_frog suggested, an egg tempera. I'm just worried that will crack. Experimentation ahead!

[basal_surge]

Have you considered seeing if the madder pigment will dissolve in an oil medium - most modern leather dyes are oil based, and it may be that if your madder happily dissolves in oil or fat, that will bind better to the leather.

[mmy_me]

Yup, considered that and decided to try it. One madderlake was reduced down to a sticky substance, then I added oil to it. It doesn't entirely dissolve, but that could be because I used olive oil, a finer oil like linseed would probably do it better. I'm waiting for the sample to settle so I can test its water fastness.

[mmy_me]

yes, cuir boulli! I tried that in the first iteration, had exactly the same result. The hints I've found in period texts actually seem to suggest immersing the leather at a fairly early stage in the production, as an extention of the tanning process. So I've dissolved one madderlake in an alum solution (because alum is mentioned in texts and also so far adding alum gives by far the best colour), immersing a test piece of leather and I've left it in the hot water cupboard. It's not warm enough here to do a sundye yet, so that will have to do. We'll see how this goes.

It is incredibly interesting, and I'm learning all sorts about how it all works. I've now exhausted the madder root, but it took four extractions of lake and this is after I dyed the wool (in a previous post). Clearly I have underestimated how much dye one can get out of those reluctant roots!

[teffania]

I got the impression that cordwain was red, and was an alum tawing process, where the madder was used during one of the tanning stages. But I've also got the impression we don't know enough about cordwain to truly be sure exactly how it was done. Mind you true cordwain (spanish goat or sheep leather) was getting rarer by the end of the 12th C in England, so I assume further north and later wouldn't be likely to have the exact spanish corwain process.

Annother thing you could try extracting madder into is an alcohol extract. And dissolving madder in fats like tallow or lard might work considerably differently to oil? Maybe it doesn't even need to dissolve, just be conveyed along in suitably fine particles?