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Earth Cloth: Animal, Vegetable, Mineral

Feb. 18, 2016. In my fascination with textile arts, I keep wanting to make "eco-prints," or rich patterns on cloth using botanical material. Here in the northern hemisphere, it isn't really the season, so I decided to experiment with the onion skins I'd been saving in the freezer for just such an occasion.

Onion skins are natural dye 101. They reliably produce brown. After my handful of experiments with mediocre results last year, starting at the beginning seemed like a good idea. Silk is also good for beginners: as a protein-based fiber it takes on color easily. Did you know that the Chinese were making cloth from the cocoons of silk worms as early as 2700 B.C.E.? Anyway, including an iron blanket further increases my chances for success. Iron is powerful, deepening and "saddening" colors.

Creating earth cloth isn't difficult. It's mostly slow and requires a sense of adventure. Moving through the process helps me step out of my easy reliance on mass-produced cloth and clothing. It puts me in the mindset of pre-industrialized women, who needed create beauty in their inventive use of what they had at hand and in their patience for the long haul. Tasks like discovering rusty nails to put in an iron bath take a certain life strategy, a willingness to consider alternate uses for throwaways, and a folk knowledge of how the world works.

Recipe for this week's project

Preparation

• Silk scarf (8 x 54 inch, silk crepe blank, sold by Dharma Trading). Pre-washed with blue Dawn and Washing Soda to remove any surface gunk that would interfere with dyeing.
• Papery skins from several yellow onions, enough to scatter across the silk
• Iron blanket (see how-to below)
• A steamer (i.e., a pot with a rack), a stick about as long as the width of the planned bundle, string and/or rubber bands

Bundle

• Lay out the silk scarf
• Scatter the onion skins over it. Mine were just random.
• Wearing rubber gloves, wring out the iron blanket and lay it over the onion skins.
• Starting at one end, wrap the layers around the stick as tightly as possible. The tight wrap is required to transfer the color in the shape of the skins. It's basically a printing process, which you intend to be permanent (i.e.,colorfast).
• I used rubber bands to keep the bundle together while I wrapped it tightly with string. See image below.

Cooking

• Set the bundle on the steamer rack.
• Steam for about an hour.
• Allow to cool overnight before unwrapping.

The advice I've read says to allow the material to "cure" for 5-7 days before washing/rinsing to retain the best color. I did iron my scarf because I was anxious to see how it turned out. See image at top.

Iron Blanket

Iron liquor. Combine in a jar: a few rusty found objects, like nails, washers, etc. and a solution of 2 parts water, 1 part white vinegar. Close the jar and let it sit for a couple weeks till a rusty-orange color appears. It can be kept indefinitely, used and reused.(from Sasha Duerr, The Handbook of Natural Plant Dyes)

For an "iron blanket," soak a long strip of cotton (mine was about the same size as the silk scarf) in the iron liquor for at least an hour. Layer it into the bundle. The cotton strip will also pick up the imprint, but can be washed and returned to the iron liquor for the next project.

 

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