Theresa Hornstein
minnesota, usa
Stockholm 108: To dye with archil
Wash the wool as is previously described. For a mina of wool take 4 chus of urine and a half a mina of alum. Mix these, and at the same time make a fire beneath them until they boil up. Put the wool in and stir incessantly, but when the wool sinks down and the liquor subsides then rinse the wool out. Boil in drinking water three times as much archil as the weight of the wool, take the archil out, put the wool in and stir up uniformly until the wool becomes soaked. Then pulverize a quarter of a mina of chalcanthum for each mina of wool and mix them. Stir up incessantly and thereby make the wool uniform. Then take it out, rinse out and let the wool dry as in other cases.
introduction:
For this experiment, I used 5 grams of 100% wool yarn in a natural ivory color and washed in soapwort (Saponaria officinalis). Human urine was used as the urine source. Aluminum sulfate (Dharma Trading Company) was used for alum. A ceramic pot over a propane flame was used for any heating. The water used was well water with a pH of 8.3 and containing trace amounts of fluoride, iron, and calcium. Chalcanthum is listed as CuSO4 . I used CuSO4 from an old (1950s) lab kit that did not list a supplier or the concentration. The wool was line-dried in the shade. Mixed lichens were gathered from the bark of sugar maple (Acer saccharum) and wild plum (Prunus Americana). Most were too damaged from commercial bark removal to be identifiable to species. Only those lichens which turned red/pink with bleach were used. The lichens were just covered with a 50/50 mix of human urine and well water in a covered glass jar and placed on a heated seed starting mat (96o F). The jar was opened and agitated daily. After two months, the solution in the jar was a deep purple. This was used as the “archil” in the recipe. The method followed the recipe, as described.
Blog Posts:
Stockholm 109: Dyeing in Phoenician Color with Archil
Roll up the wool and sift ashes over it. Separate the rolls in a convenient manner and again shift ashes over them until the wool becomes clean and branny. Shake it out on the following day and rinse it out. After the washing, boil it with 6 chus of salt water for each mina of wool, mix in half a mina of alum and mordant the wool therein in the way mentioned. Rinse it out. Then cook, in rainwater, until it boils, three times as much archil as the weight of the wool. Pour in goat’s milk and stir up. Put the wool in and stir again until the color is thoroughly soaked in. Then take the wool out, rinse it and dry it, but in doing so protect it from smoke.
introduction:
For this experiment, I used 5 grams of 100% wool yarn in a natural ivory color. The ashes used were a mixture of larch (Larix ssp.), maple (Acer ssp.), and aspen (Populous ssp.). The salt water used was made by combining 1 gallon of well water with ¼ cup of Morton kosher salt. The well water has a pH of 8.3 and contains trace amounts of fluoride, iron, and calcium. Aluminum sulfate (Dharma Trading Company) was used for alum. The rain water was gathered from a rain barrel. The goat milk was provided by a neighbor. Mixed lichens were gathered from the bark of sugar maple (Acer saccharum) and wild plum (Prunus Americana). Most were too damaged from commercial bark removal to be identifiable to species. Only those lichens which turned red/pink with bleach were used. The lichens were just covered with a 50/50 mix of human urine and well water in a covered glass jar and placed on a heated seed starting mat (96o F). The jar was opened and agitated daily. After two months, the solution in the jar was a deep purple. This was used as the “archil” in the recipe. The dye method followed the recipe, as described.
Stockholm 148: Preparation of Tyrian Purple
Phrygian stone is pulverized and boiled. The wool is put in and left there until it becomes cold. Then lift it out and put a mina of archil in a vessel, boil it, put the wool in again and let it become cold there. Lift it out and rinse it with salt water.
introduction:
For this experiment, I used 5 grams of 100% wool yarn in a natural ivory color and washed in soapwort (Saponaria officinalis). The “vessel” used was a glazed ceramic pot. The water used was well water with a pH of 8.3 and containing trace amounts of fluoride, iron, and calcium. “Phrygian stone” is in multiple sources as a pumice-like stone. I had a pumice stone I picked up off a beach on the coast of Sicily. This was the closest I could come. I ground the stone in a steel dolly pot before adding it to the well water and boiling it. The salt water used was made by combining 1 gallon of well water with ¼ cup of Morton kosher salt. The wool was line-dried in the shade. Mixed lichens were gathered from the bark of sugar maple (Acer saccharum) and wild plum (Prunus Americana). Most were too damaged from commercial bark removal to be identifiable to species. Only those lichens which turned red/pink with bleach were used. The lichens were just covered with a 50/50 mix of human urine and well water in a covered glass jar and placed on a heated seed starting mat (96o F). The jar was opened and agitated daily. After two months, the solution in the jar was a deep purple. This was used as the “archil” in the recipe. The method followed the recipe, as described.
