Tuesday 25 March 2008

Dying

Greetings Lady Jenny of Cranbrook, from what land do you hail from ?
I have acquired a substantial amount of thryian purple dye (crushed shells) have you worked with this dye before ? I hope to dye a woollen cope before next Twelthnight but I am no Dyer.

3 comments:

Jahanarabanu said...

Gilbere,
I like your idea of dying a wool cloak! I have never used the dye that you speak of here, but have read about the dyes used in Byantium made of seashells! Jenni is our resident expert on dyes, so if anyone can help she can!
Cheers,
Jahanara

Gilbere Du Chateau La Mer said...

Therigiua is now called Essouerra and is in Morroco The Nice lady doing the Dying workshop at Viceroy knows that the imperial roman robes dted thryian purple were made of silk and was able to define the actual dye chemical and the acid animal fibre dying process I will have to use so now I am a lot further along in using my dye.

I will have to look up Byantium as another way to research seashell dyes.
What colours were they getting ?
The shells fron Assouerra give either a stunning Purple (Male) or vibrant blue (female)
must find out how they are sexed for my documentation !

Jenny said...

Thank you for the kind compliment, Gilbere! Also, sorry to take so long responding to the Group and specifically to questions asked of me.
The Royal Purple chemical is a form of indigo (dibromo-indigo, I think). Indigo type dyes tend to have a soluble form which penetrates the fibre, and an insoluble form which then stays in the fibre, and they tend to need light to 'fix' them. I'll do a little more research on this, as it is a fascinating topic. I will also try to refrain from being TOO scientific, if I can ;-)

I'll be back when I've more info.

All the best!

Jenny
(WD, ID)