Greetings all, Normally I just lurk, but this time.... My experience with prickly pears on wool suggests, that for protein fibers at least, no metal, no heat, and no mordant might be the way to go with pomagranates or other dark fruit such as berries (and who knows maybe even beets). The really nice thing about pomagranates is that you don't have to singe off spines and glochids first. In any case here is a good prickly pear 'recipe' that might be worth expanding to other fruit.
Prickly pear dye recipe: (With deep gratitude to the weavers of the Navajo Nation who are the ultimate source of this recipe) Materials Prickly pears, fresh or dried, with the spines either rubbed off in sand or singed off. Wool (cotton can be used, the color is fast, but much lighter) Water Any good non-metal (very important) container Method: Crush the dried or fresh prickly pears in the water in the non-metal container and add the wool. If dry pears 1:1, pears to fiber, and if fresh...experiment, but at least 2:1. I haven't bothered with putting the crushed fruit in a bag because I usually do this with clean wool that has yet to be carded. Leave the container, loosely covered, in a moderately sunny spot for a week. After a week, lift the lid, (hold your nose) and lift the fiber out with a stick. If you like the color you're done. If it's not deep enough, leave for another week or redye with a new batch of pears, your choice, both work. Whenever I do this there has been no bleeding. The first rinse has always knocked off the loose bits and that was that...even when I follow with hot soapy water. Absolutely blew me away the first time I saw it...wonderful! From the pears (actually they're called tuna, or toona, nothing to do with fish) across the street I get an absolutely gorgeous deep violet wool and a pink on cotton and somethig a bit darker than cotton on soy silk. The reason why I think that this might work with other dark fruits is this: If you use heat or heat and alum with prickly pears and wool you get a blah tan. We get similar results (grey) with other berries which is why the received wisdom has been that, despite the dark colors, they don't yield good dyes. I've been too busy lately to test the hypothesis. If any of you do please let the rest of us know. Best wishes, Ruby Sheffer North Chevelon Canyon Antelope Forage Project and Round Rodent Ranch To stop mail temporarily mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] with the message: set nomail To restore send: set mail
