28/07/2026
Rooted Colour Community Dye Equipment Update;
Big thanks to Debbie Mitchiner for laying the groundwork on this project way back in 2019.
As we experiment with Natural Dyes at a bigger scale there's always more questions leading to more questions!
For our second Design Jam we wanted were asking;
Is heat necessary? Heating 620L of water requires lots of additional equipment and energy, we wondered is it possible to get colour by making a tea and then adding to a cold bath.
What difference does the space in the sink make to even colour uptake? The sink is 1.5m wide to allow fabric to lay out width ways, we hypothesised that this would give us more even colour.
Initial results;
The onion skins gave a rich yellow at room temperature compared to a rusty orange at 60 degrees
The sink dyed fabric was more even than the pot dyed fabric. However; it wasn't completely even. Unevenness could be due to; mordanting process, sediment in the bath, scouting process...
More experimentation to come!
