I’ve been working on a project for which I’m collecting handkerchiefs, dyeing them as many different colors as I can, and suspending them from the ceiling for an exhibit that opens next year. I have more than 200 handkerchiefs, many vintage, some donated, some new. Last month, I spent several days preparing the hankies to be dyed. Because they are cotton and I’m using natural dyes, there is a process I follow to make sure they accept the dye and stay that color as long as possible. The project will be exhibited for 4 months and lit by gallery lights, so they need to be lightfast. This process entails washing the fabric, scouring it (to remove any waxes and oils that might be used in the manufacturing process), then mordanting it with gallnut, followed by aluminum acetate, then a quick dip in calcium carbonate. The mordanting process allows the fabric to accept the dye, make the color as intense as possible, and hold onto it, otherwise it would just wash out.
The exhibit next year will be in the Sawtooth School of Art‘s Davis gallery. With them, I’m organizing community events during which we’ll make some of the work for the show. The first of these events was a workshop led by my friend and fellow artist Nicole Asselin last weekend. With the students, we dyed some handkerchiefs using madder, weld, and pomegranate, all natural dyes that have been used for millennia. Students also had a chance to play with the dyes on bandanas they could take home.
Here Nicole presents some key concepts with a bunch of undyed hankies and some common dyestuff in the foreground.
A student keeps an eye on the madder root dye pot.
Dyed hankies: madder on the left, pomegranate center, and weld on the right. Some of the colors have also been modified using an iron bath and citric acid.
Hankies from last night’s work in the dye studio: indigo on the right and weld overdyed with indigo on the left. You can see here the tiny labels that I’m attaching to each hanky with the date and dyestuff used on each one.
