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Maddr-Dyd-Wol-art - 11/23/19

 

"Wool Dyed with Madder" by Lady Ysabel de la Oya.

 

NOTE: See also these files: dyeing-msg, dye-list-art, Int-Dyeing-FC-art, mordants-msg, green-art, color-a-fab-bib, Natural-Dyeng-art, fab-painting-msg.

 

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Thank you,

Mark S. Harris...AKA:..Stefan li Rous

stefan at florilegium.org

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Wool Dyed with Madder

by Lady Ysabel de la Oya

Barony of Forgotten Sea / Shire of Cum an Iolar

 

Experiments with wool yarn and different techniques of dyeing with madder and alum.  This was my first dye project, and while it didn't quite go as expected, it was fun and I learned a lot.

 

History of Dyeing in the Middle Age and Renaissance

 

In period, the dyeing of cloth and yarn would mostly be done with plant or animal matter. The combination of different dyes was also frequently done.[1]

 

Cultivation of woad (blue) and madder (red) started as early as the 9th century when Emperor Charlemagne ordered it. Yellow could be produced from weld or Ladies Bedstraw (among other colors). Fustic could produce tan, gold and yellow, depending on the mordant used.[1]

 

Colors could vary widely based on several factors including dye plant health, location grown, and age; material being dyed; condition of the water being used to dye; the amount of material used; temperature of the water; material of dye vat; and many other factors.[2]

 

Prior to about the 12th-century dyeing of cloth and yarn was mostly done on a small scale, at home in the village. Dyed products and dye supplies were imported, but generally, dyeing had not become the province guilds. Originally dyers where an offshoot of the weavers guild, but formed their own guilds later on.3 Monasteries and convents would also produce dyes.[1] Even in rural settings, however, being able to dye was a luxury, as it necessitated a secondary pot that was not used for cooking.[2]

 

Later, rural inhabitants still had to dye their own cloth and yarns, but those in larger towns and cities could buy theirs. These purchased products often were of a higher quality.[4]

 

Most dye manuals were written in the Islamic world before the 15th century. While the recipes weren't exact (much like cookbooks of the period) European recipe books did start to appear from the 15th century onward.[2]

 

The most common fibers that were dyed were wool (and other animal hair, like goat and rabbit), silk, cotton, and linen. Wool and silk are protein-based while cotton and linen are cellulose. Different dyes and mordants reacted very differently to protein versus cellulose fibers.[2]

 

Like most things in the middle ages, class had a great deal to do with what color fabric was worn. Even if vibrant colors could be afforded, they were viewed as inappropriate for the lower classes, as they were not humble colors. Muted blue, gray, and brown were thought to be best suited for the working classes.[4]

 

       

 

Left: 15th-century illumination appearing in Italian silk dyer's handbook. [5]

Right: 15th-century illumination appearing in a Flemish manuscript.[4]

 

Madder

 

The second most popular color in the middle ages was red, and madder root was typically used to achieve this color. Madder dates back to ancient Greek, Roman, and Egyptian times, with evidence dating back to 1500 BCE. Native to the Mediterranean, madder is a herb with roots that contain pigment in a layer between the skin and the wooden heart. Cultivation in Europe started in the 1st century in Italy and spread across Europe through the dark and middle ages. While it was grown in Europe, madder grown in the Islamic world was regarded as being a higher quality.[2]

 

The colors produced with madder ranged from bright red, orange, terracotta, to brown and is colorfast on all natural fibers.[2]

 

Alum

 

Many dyes require a mordant, which is an additive that will help the dye attach to the cloth or yard and also affect the color of the finished product. While a dyer can mordant before or during the dyeing process, most medieval dyers mordanted before dyeing. Alum, copper, and iron-based mordants were used throughout the middle ages, with lead, mercury and other more dangerous compounds being used in the 16th century.[2]

 

The most common medieval mordant was alum. Plants such as moss and lichen were boiled for extended amounts of time for alum to be extracted. Using alum as a mordant can produce vibrant hues of yellow and red, but too much can result in sticky fibers.[2]  Dating back as far as ancient Egypt, alum has been used for thousands of years.[6]

 

Period Dye Recipes

 

From The Segreti per Colori or Secrets of Colors, a 15th century Italian manuscript:

" To dye thread red. ​--Take some madder well pounded, and put it into a little lye made from vine ashes, and let it boil, and put the thread to boil in the lye for some time; then remove it from the fire, and let it dry; when it is dry alum it, and then boil it in a little verzino well boiled with water and lye mixed together; then dry it in the wind without sun, and it will be fine." [7]

 

In this recipe madder is mixed with lye, then alum is used as a post mordant.

 

A 16th century Dutch manuel called A Profitable Booke gives the following:

"To dye wooll red. Ye shall put too four pound of woollen yarne, tenne ounces of Allom, and seeth it with branne water so much as ye shall thinke good, then take your yarne out, and put that water out of that Kettle, and put therein againe three parts of fresh branne water, and one part of faire cleere water, and warme it a little on the fire, then put therein two pound of grening weede [madder]*, and let it so warme a while, then put therin your wooll, and stirre it wel with a sticke the space of three houres, but let it not seeth in any wise, so done, then take out your wooll againe, and put it againe into your Kettle, and put thereto halfe a glassefull of unsleakt lime, with as much of common ashes, and thereto put your wooll againe, and stirre it with a staffe sixe or seuen Paternoster whiles, than take foorth your wooll, and ye shall haue a faire colour. But if yee will haue it yet a more sanguine colour, then must you put into your Kettle halfe a little glasse full of more lime, and a little glasse full of common ashes, and thereto put your wooll againe, and stirre it well still foure or fiue Paternoster whiles, then take foorth your wooll and wash it, and so ye shall haue a verie faire colour."[8]

 

Here, alum is a pre-mordant at 6.4 percent of the wool weight. The madder is used with other cormorants at half the weight of the wool. Post mordants were then used. *(Dutch to English translation error, translation was done in 1605. )

 

In The English Housewife, an English book published in 1615 wool is dyed thus:

To dye wool red

"If you would dye your wool into a perfect red colour, set on a pan full of water; when it is hot put in a peck of wheat bran, and let it boil a little; then put it into a tub, and put twice as much cold water unto it, and let it stand until it be a week old; having done so then shall you put to ten pounds of wool, a pound of alum, then heat your liquor again, and put in your alum, and as soon as it is melted, put in your wool, and let it boil in the space of an hour; then take it out again, and then set on more bran and water: then take a pound of madder, and put in your madder when the liquor is hot; when the madder is broken, put in the wool and open it, and when it cometh to be very hot, then stir it with the staff, and take it out and wash it with fair water, then set it on the pan again with fair water, and then take a pound of Saradine buck [alum], and put it therein, and let it boil the space of an egg seething; then put in the wool, and stirt it three or four times about, and open it well; after, dry it"[9]

 

This recipe calls for alum to be used at ten percent of the wool weight, as both a pre and post mordant. Madder is used as the dye at a ten percent rate as well.

 

My Method

 

My aim was to produce three samples of wool dyed with madder, all with slightly different processes. One skein is dyed with ground madder root in heated water, with alum as a pre-mordant. The second is un-mordanted and dyed with root pieces that were soaked, then was heated. The third also uses alum as a pre-mordant and is dyed with the heated, soaked, root pieces.

 

All skeins of yarn are 100% wool 8oz, undyed, and purchased from Yarn Barn in Lawrence, Kansas.

 

First, I tied off my skeins of yarn in several places in three loose bundles to keep the yarn from becoming a horrible, tangled mess during the dye process. (right)

 

 

I added 8oz of dried, cut up madder roots to a pot of water and soaked it for around 16 hours. The 8oz of madder root will be 50% of the fiber weight for two skeins of yarn. (left)

 

 

Next, I bought 1.6 oz of alum and water to just shy of a boil. I turned off the heat, added two skeins of yarn, covered it and let it sit for an hour. The alum was 10% of the weight of the fiber.

 

 

I drained, rinsed well, and dried the wool. I ground 2 oz dried madder roots in my spice grinder (25%) of the fiber weight. I added it to water and brought it to an almost boil. After I pulled it off the heat, I added one skein of pre-mordanted yarn. I let it soak, uncovered, stirring from time to time, for about two hours.

 

I moved the soaking roots to a larger pot and brought it to just short of a boil. I then added one pre-mordanted and one un mordanted (wet) skeins of yarn. I let it soak, uncovered, stirring from time to time, for about two hours.

 

 

After many rinses, I took the wet yarn and wrung it out, thoroughly on a hook.

 

I did like the colors produced but the wool dyed unevenly. I believe this is a result of dyeing in too small a pot.

 

 

From left to right: no mordant with larger madder chunks, alum mordant with larger madder chunks, alum mordant with ground madder.

 

Works Cited

 

1. "Medieval Dyes and Dyeing." The Bayeux Tapestry, 13 May 2008, bayeux.wordpress.com/2008/05/11/medieval-dyes-and-dyeing/.

 

2. Smith, Jodi. Medieval Dyes. CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform, 2015.

 

3. Leix, Alfred. "Dyes of the Middle Ages." Ciba 1: Medieval Dyeing, www.elizabethancostume.net, www.elizabethancostume.net/cibas/ciba1.html.

 

4. Gilbert, Rosalie. "Medieval Dyestuffs, Dyeing & Colour Names." Rosalie's Medieval Woman - Dyes and Colours, rosaliegilbert.com/dyesandcolours.html.

 

5. Weaver, Durham. "Medieval Dyeing and Other Textile Processes." Pinterest, 5 June 2016, www.pinterest.com/pin/299067231487134939/.

 

6. "The Whatmans and Wove Paper." The Early History of Alum, ww.wovepaper.co.uk/alumessay1.html.

 

7. "Segreti per Colori." www.elizabethancostume.net, www.elizabethancostume.net/dyes/segreti.htm.

 

8. "A Profitable Booke." www.elizabethancostume.net, ww.elizabethancostume.net/dyes/profitable.html.

 

9. Markham, Gervase, and Michael R. Best. The English Housewife. McGill-Queen's Univ. Press, 1998.

 

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Copyright 2015 by Michelle Araj. <michellearaj at gmail.com>. Permission is granted for republication in SCA-related publications, provided the author is credited. Addresses change, but a reasonable attempt should be made to ensure that the author is notified of the publication and if possible receives a copy.

 

If this article is reprinted in a publication, please place a notice in the publication that you found this article in the Florilegium. I would also appreciate an email to myself, so that I can track which articles are being reprinted. Thanks. -Stefan.

 

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Formatting copyright © Mark S. Harris (THLord Stefan li Rous).
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Comments to the Editor: stefan at florilegium.org