Blue Plus Yellow Makes Green
Dyeing with Turmeric
I am smitten with indigo. I dye fabric with indigo. I create indigo quilts. Last fall as I finished one indigo quilt, I planned a new quilt around a particularly interesting piece of indigo. It has a shell design and I wanted to add fabrics that look like seaweed. In my mind, I could “see” the greens I wanted. After consulting with my friend who is an expert with natural dyes, I decided to use turmeric to over-dye a set of indigo gradation fabrics.
Last November, I dyed a set of indigo gradation fabrics. I bought turmeric. I borrowed my friend’s dye pot, hot plate, and dye supplies. But when the weather suddenly got much colder, the project came to a halt. Turmeric, and indigo dyes prefer warm to hot weather.
Finally, spring brought weather warm enough for the dyes. It was time for turmeric dyeing. While the fabric soaked in the mordant, I simmered the turmeric for an hour. Then I strained the liquid through muslin to remove the turmeric powder from the dye. The mordanted fabric went into the simmering dye. (The thick turmeric paste waste product, which smelled amazing, went in the garden.) The fabric absorbed the dye within minutes. Most pieces stayed in the dye pot for about 20 minutes, turning from indigo blue to a beautiful range of greens. Two pieces, one originally white and one originally a dark indigo, remained in the pot for several hours and took on a deeper, richer yellow.
With the sun shining behind, the wet fabric glowed. Now that it is washed, dried, and ironed, it is ready to become an indigo shell quilt…...watch for that in the future.
