Black bean dye: the dye you can eat

As promised, an entry on dying with black beans. I apologize to my handful of readers- I’m living in the cabin in the woods in down east Maine (yes, sounds romantic as well as a great setting for a horror) with no internet connections. Here is one of my attempts to catch up as I sit in the grocery store, in the big city of Ellsworth, stealing internet from the cafe next door. To give you a sense, here is a pic of our trusty wood stove!

So black beans. I had a lot of fun with these dye baths, especially since I got to eat the beans that were soaking in the form of a delicious chili. 

First, reluctantly, I mordanted my wool. This is an important step I often try to deny, but important nonetheless. Yes you should do it. The Craft of the Dyer: Colour from Plants and Lichens of the Northeast by Karen Leigh Casselman describes mordants:

“There is more confusion regarding the use of mordants than with any other aspect of plant dyeing. Mordants are simply metallic or mineral salts which, when added to the dyebath, enhance, intensify, or change the colour of the dyebath and mkae the resulting shade more fast to light and washing.” 

So it is a good thing. I mordanted my wool in 5 gallons of water which I boiled for 30 mins with about 1 gram of cream of tarter (found in most kitchens) and 1 gram of alum (an ingredient in baking sodas and other house hold items). Here are more detailed directions:

The wool in the mordant pot:

Meanwhile, I soaked a big bowl of black beans with water (enough to cover the future wool) for two days, stirring whenever I walked by it in the kitchen. By the second day the water was a deep purple. 

Then, in a dying pot strictly used for dying experiments (not cooking), I added the mordanted wool, still wet, and the black bean soaking water. No heat necessary. I let this sit for another 2 days and then rinsed the wool in cold water (don’t use hot, it will cause unintended felting) until the water ran clear. I dryed it in the greenhouse on a few sunny winter days. Though the tips of the wool were the bluest (some even bright shades of tourquoise!) once carded the overall effect was beautiful shades of light blue.

I had did two dye baths, one whose batch of wool had been previously dyed with an unsatisfactory tan. Here is the difference in color. The one on the left is the over dyed wool, a blue/ green/ gray and on the right is the light blue wool. Both dyed with the black bean.

TaDa!  

If you are interested in trying out different plant dyes, it is a deep rabbit hole of exciting experiments. Right now I am collecting a bunch of onion skins... a foolproof dye bath. Check out this book for a great overview of natural plant dying as well as thorough lists and instructions for many of the plants around you: