Madder madness

or - what  NOT  to do if you desire true red.

Dye day in the middle of winter ... what else could we expect?

We were not precise.  We did not follow protocol.

Fortune might favor prepared minds but when it came to trying this new dye source
our minds were  not  [prepared, that is] ... which actually seemed ok at the time.
Our main objective was just to play,

see what happened if we flew by the seat of our pants ...

Spelled out, to see what happened

if ... we didn't carefully weigh the correct amount of madder powder

if ... we didn't pre-mordant our cloth

if ... we didn't check the water pH

if ... we didn't use a thermometer to check dye bath temperatures while cooking.

Although the bath never did come to a boil [big no-no],

with a list like the above it's a wonder we achieved any pleasing color at all.

~ frontispiece silk blouse #1 ~

It was January

and like a pair of hooligans with only a couple of hours to spare before the pub closes,

we went about things a bit wildly, bypassing [most of] the well-published rules ...

we prepped our dye pot mainly on a couple whims, a few educated guesses

and several generous splashes of laughter.

Obviously, this was not the recipe to follow

if the color one is after is anything akin to true royal  RED.

Dyeing with madder has a rich and ancient history and although we were intrigued,

the desire to 'wing it' won out in the end.

We were short on time and long on laissez faire.

Maiwa provided useful background info over on their site:

Madder – Rubia tinctorium, Rubia cordifolia, and Morinda citrifolia is one of the oldest dyestuffs. It is frequently used to produce turkey reds, mulberry, orange-red, terra cotta, and in combination with other dyes and dyeing procedures can yield crimson, purple, rust, browns, and near black. The primary dye component is alizarin, which is found in the roots of several plants and trees. Madder is cultivated and grows wild throughout India, South East Asia, Turkey, Europe, South China, parts of Africa, Australia and Japan. 
Madder is a complex dyestuff containing over 20 individual chemical substances. 
Alizarin is the most important because it gives the famous warm Turkey red colour. But also present in this wonderful plant is munjistin, purpurin, and a multitude of yellows and browns. Madder is dyed at 
35-100% wof [weight of fabric] for a medium depth of shade.

Our first lesson of note is contained in that last line about weight of fabric:
next time, for deeper shades, we definitely need to add more madder.
[L. brought back quite a hefty bag of powder from her recent travels
so we have plenty for another go ...]

~ silk blouse #2, no iron, bundled around copper ~

So although in principle I am not adverse to toasty apricot, salmon-pink,
or something resembling a mango chutney,
I'd like to accomplish a deep luscious red

someday ...

~ silk blouse #3, iron bits inside bundle, folded like a sandwich with native madrone ~

~ concentrated color in dry-down marks ~

After-the-fact research on this dye stuff has been fascinating, while some of the
best examples of color comparison I found online were those done on wool yarn -
which, as it happens, depends heavily on the use of mordants.

~ photo credit: Brush Creek Wool Works ~

I chanced upon this comprehensive blog post,  'Madder, in Many Ways'
over at  Sea Green and Sapphire ...
some excellent photos there showing the multitude of hues & tones that can be achieved.

Since I'm most interested in dyeing silks, my road to hoe may differ somewhat
but I won't know how much until further experimentation.

The historically acclaimed light-fast and wash-fast properties of this plant dye
certainly hold much appeal.

~ Rubia tinctorum, courtesy of Wikipedia ~

Next time we'll put ourselves in a more "scientific" frame of mind

before setting out ...

and in the meantime, if anyone stopping by here has a suggestion or two to offer,

my most appreciative ears are wide open.