Colorways eMag

The fungus among us

2012-03-28T11:00:00Z

Fiber Gets Earthy . . .

My parents learned to spin and weave in the 1970s as part of the "back to the land" movement. They also planted a huge vegetable garden, kept chickens, and canned food—things their parents had been delighted to stop doing in the previous generation. As a child, I remember foraging for edible mushrooms in the New England woods, guided by our local mycologist (and bona fide shaman!). The dishes we cooked over campfires weren't fun for me as a fussy eater, and the only ones I liked were the inoffensively named Chicken of the Woods and Puffballs.

Twenty-five years later, I learned that we could have used those very mushrooms as dyestuffs, creating yellow and orange colors.

	Just a few examples show the range of colors that can be extracted from mushrooms. Photo by Joe Coca.

Fun with Fungi
Carol Lee discovered the dye possibilities of mushrooms around the same time I was gingerly tasting them. A passionate spinner, weaver, and dyer, she heard about mushroom dyeing at a conference and began her own explorations, eventually foraging for mushrooms across North America and in Scandinavia. Learning from experts such as Miriam Rice, she discovered an amazing array of colors that could emerge from the plainest-looking fungi. Over the years she has become an expert at dyeing with mushrooms, meeting mycology enthusiasts around the world and hosting dye retreats at her Encampment studio.

Carol Lee holds a Cortinarius semisanguineus mushroom along with samples of yarn using different mordants. Photo by Jessica Gates.

The owner of the Sheep Shed Studio in Encampment, Wyoming, Carol uses synthetic dyes to produce dyed rovings, but she dyes with mushrooms for her own fiber arts. During a visit this spring, her backyard studio was bubbling with dyepots containing an array of colors (including her favorite, the red Cortinarius semisanguineus). As Carol pulled out bags of dried mushrooms and jars of brightly colored dyes, she talked about using ammonia to bring out colors and the role of mordants in mushroom dyeing. She loves the process of dyeing with mushrooms so much that she's written a book called Mushrooms Are To Dye For. She shares her love of mushroom dyeing in two videos in this issue of Colorways.

More to Explore
This issue of Colorways includes lots of ways to color your cloth, from resist dyeing to painting mineral pigments directly on fabric. Explore the magical world of color for yourself.

Falling into a new look at color

2011-10-25T11:00:00Z

Who would ever think that a green lichen would produce pink and purple dyes? Not me! Photo: Joe Coca.

Time for transformation

Last week I got away to Maine, where the maple leaves currently range from almost-turning to head-turning. Here in Colorado, the aspen leaves turn a lovely shade of gold, but there is nothing like the nearly neon colors that maple trees produce at this time of year. Looking at those same trees in June, when the leaves are uniformly green, you would never think they had such hidden depths.

Hidden Hues
Apparently everyone knows about fall foliage, but color transformations abound in nature and fiber all year long—and the latest issue of Colorways finds them everywhere. While "leaf-peeping," you might not give much thought to the funny and inconspicuous black, green, or white lichens forming on stone walls or trees. You might be surprised to know that some of those lichens contain hidden sources of color—and not just mousy browns and yellows, either. Some ordinary-looking lichens create vivid shades of orange, purple, and magenta. In "Lichens: Algae + Fungi = Color!" Glenna Dean describes how to dye with lichens (and how to gather them sustainably).

	When fabric emerges from an indigo dyebath, the transformation isn't complete. You can watch it turn from green to blue before your eyes! Photo by Dagmar Klos.

From Green to Indigo
Indigo is all about transformation; even when you understand the chemistry, it seems amazing that blue dye should come from green plants (and a green dyebath). This issue of Colorways takes an in-depth look at indigo traditions and techniques. Indigo is the only naturally occurring colorfast dye, but that one dye is found in plants throughout the world: woad, añil, and dyer's knotweed, to name just a few. Whether you want to start your own indigo vat or prefer to enjoy its indigenous applications from around the world, you'll find photographs and videos that bring indigo to life.

Overdyeing can change more than the hue of a textile—it can change the mood, unite different elements, and bring it to life. Photo by Joe Coca.

The Magic Dyebath
Of course, there are times when you wish a project would transform itself—if you have yarn, fabric, or fiber whose color you'd like to wave away with a magic wand—you can help the process along. In her article on overdyeing, Sara Lamb demonstrates how a dip in the right dyebath can give new life to an unloved project. She offers instruction for selecting an overdye color and surprising before-and-after examples.

As the seasons change, join us and take a fresh look at color with Colorways. (Me? I did a little overdyeing—my hair is now the color of a maple leaf in late October.)

Dye dangerously with indigo

2011-09-21T11:00:00Z

Dagmar Klos lifts just-dyed cloth from an indigo vat. Photo courtesy of Dagmar Klos.

Choose Your Own (Color) Adventure

One of my favorite parts of editing Interweave's spinning, dyeing, and fiber eMags is working for Linda Ligon. Linda had the great idea to start Interweave decades ago and has had lots more since then. If you've read her posts on Spinning Daily, then you probably know that Linda looks at the world in a unique way.

Indigo In Depth
The new issue of Colorways includes an in-depth look at indigo, from growing the dye material to creating an indigo vat at home to the textiles that artisans have been making with indigo for centuries. Natural dye expert Dagmar Klos offers directions on how to make an indigo vat using natural fermentation or chemical reduction (which are provided in a handy PDF format, so you can print them out and keep them near the dye vat).

	Linda mixing up Saxon blue (with plenty of protection).

Linda's Laboratory
But Linda had an idea for something that some might consider beyond the pale: she volunteered to research and write a piece on Saxon blue. Unlike the typical indigo vat (which is carefully treated through a natural or chemical process to remove oxygen), Saxon blue extract is made through a quick, exciting process. It requires 98% sulfuric acid, which we were allowed to buy only after demonstrating that we were upstanding citizens (and which I didn't even get close to). But Linda insisted, "It will be easy!" (That's often how adventures with Linda begin.)

Linda came into the office one Monday a few weeks later with a video of herself mixing the Saxon blue solution. In the video, she is dressed from head to toe in protective covering (including a full face mask) while her husband, a scientist, supervised and recorded. She measures out ingredients using a professional-quality balance and beakers and narrates as she mixes them. (At one point you can hear her husband admonish, "Slowly!" from behind the camera.)

When the Saxon blue extract was finished, the result was a jar of no-fuss concentrate. She showed me how simple it was to use: We added a syringeful of extract to a pot of simmering water, then immersed a few skeins of yarn. After about ten minutes, the yarn emerged a beautiful dark fast teal.

Yarn dyed with Saxon blue is surprisingly teal in color. Photo by Joe Coca.

Explore Colorways
I can't recommend making Saxon blue yourself, but I absolutely recommend reading about Linda's exploits in the new issue of Colorways. You can safely experiment with dyes from the grocery store using Cathy Bullington's recipes, and you can practice blending colors with a color wheel and drumcarder or overdyeing yarns and projects. Whether you prefer to experience color cautiously or dye dangerously, there's plenty to discover in Colorways.

Wishing we had Smell-O-Vision

2011-07-06T11:00:00Z

Demetrio Bautista Lazo offers a peek into his dyepots in Colorways.

Visit the dye studios of Kristine Vejar and A Verb for Keeping Warm as part of Colorways.

Chris Conrad shares the secrets of kakishibu in Colorways.

SpinKnit allows us to watch spinners double-drafting in the highlands of Peru.

A Spinner's Dream Staycation

You love the feel, the look, even the smell of yarn and fiber, so when you want to have a spinning and knitting experience, you reach for…

Your keyboard.

That may not be the first thing you think of, but hear me out. Interweave's eMags aren't (yet) equipped with Smell-O-Vision, but they do take you to see and hear fiber artists and textile lovers around the world, up close and personal.

In the recent issue of Colorways, we sat down with Demetrio Bautista Lazo of Oaxaca, Mexico, to hear in his own words how he got started as a natural dyer. Along with the video, there are slide shows that let you peek in Demetrio's studio, see the dyestuffs that go in the vats, ogle the yarns that emerge, and admire they rugs they become. You can try his methods for dyeing with cochineal using the project PDF.

On our visit to A Verb for Keeping Warm in Oakland, California, Kristine Vejar tells us that we're probably lucky not to smell all of the natural dyes that she uses to create amazing colors-because indigo can be "kind of smelly." Instead, you can just admire the colors of the sumptuous fibers and learn about how she learned to dye in India.

You don't need to imagine hot steam rising off the vessels used to dye silk and cotton with kakishibu. As Chris Conrad shows us, kakishibu works at room temperature with no mordant; kakishibu is a traditional dye from Japan that is made from the fermented juice of unripe persimmons. Kakishibu's unusual traits don't end there; the high tannin content makes the colors of kakishibu darken and develop in the sun instead of fading.

It's not just Colorways that gives you unique fiber experiences at the click of a mouse. The first issue of SpinKnit, published late last year, takes you to the highlands of Peru to watch spinners double-drafting yarn and to the home of Priscilla Gibson-Roberts to hear her ideas about the importance of spinning. In EntreKnits, an eMag about knitting and shape, see Vivian Høxbro as she describes her fascination with domino knitting and hear Norah Gaughan on the ways that nature's forms inspire her work.

An eMag can take you to places on the other side of the world, let you peer over the shoulder of a master teacher as she demonstrates her signature technique, or walk you through new skills step-by-step. Pick up your yarn or fiber, download an issue, and enjoy a spinner's staycation.

What do you do when you see red?

2011-06-08T11:00:00Z

Changing the pH of a cochineal dyebath creates a dramatic variation in the palette of colors.

The color in kakishibu only reaches its full bloom when exposed to sunlight.

In natural dyes, yellow and blue do make green.

A passion for color

Interweave's eMag Editor, Anne Merrow, is guest blogging today to introduce the newest in Interweave's group of interactive digital eMags for spinners, dyers, and other fiber artists, Colorways. Colorways looks closely at all the ways color meets cloth. The eMag format uses photos to show you rich palettes, video to introduce you to the fascinating people who make color their professional passion, interactivity to bring you face-to-face with new experiences, and three downloadable PDF recipes for building your own skills as a fiber artist.

The first issue of Colorways focuses on natural colors: artisans working in the old tradition of plant-based dyes; cotton growing in shades from pure white to startling green and mauve; a Seattle entrepreneur helping weavers use their natural colors in new ways; woad, the shocking blue made famous in Braveheart, serenaded by Alden Amos and Stephenie Gaustad. Explore the world of color in fiber—from tan to Technicolor—with Colorways.

Seductive color

I love soft cashmere, robust Romney locks, and silky kid mohair at least as much as the next spinner, but looking over the yarns and fibers in my stash, I have to admit that it's color that seduces me most.

Red

Red calls out to me—stops me in my tracks. Do you remember the first time you heard that cochineal—the source of brilliant reds for hundreds of years before the development of synthetic dyes—is made from bugs? In an era when we can use powdered drink mix to dye yarns fruity red, it's hard to imagine gleaning shades of crimson only by coaxing it from crushed insects. (Legend has it that the red coats of Revolutionary-era British soldiers—the officers, at least—got their famous color from cochineal.) Even though dyeing with cochineal is an old process, there are still dyers who use it today, from modern dye studios in California to family weaving cooperatives in Oaxaca, Mexico.

Rust

It's more of a rust than a scarlet, but the fermented juice of green, unripe persimmons creates a color that's a bit shocking, too: Instead of fading in sunlight, the tannin-rich dyestuff known as kakishibu darkens and moves toward the sun, creating a deep pinkish brown where exposed to light.

Green

During our interview in her Oakland store, Kristine Vejar said something that has changed the way I look at natural dyes. She pointed out that although green is the color most commonly associated with nature, it is one of the most difficult to achieve in natural dyes. Even deep green leaves typically create yellow or chartreuse. To make a true emerald green, she dyes fiber to a yellow color, then overdyes it with indigo.

It's more sage than emerald, but cotton (which we commonly think of as whiter than white) grows in green…and mauve, brown, and nearly red.

Whether you want to use natural colors in your work, grow colored cotton, support natural dyers, or marvel at the unexpected natural sources of color, the first issue of Colorways leads you on an amazing interactive journey.