Silk took the dye easier than linen would - but the chemicals would age the silk rather quickly, and the cloth would shatter before long, especially black-dyed silk. Linen can certainly be boiled, yet it was difficult to set a strong colour, something about the resistance of lignin to the dye chemicals.
Maybe they applied chrome pigments to the lace, in a dust, for this yellow lace. and they got sick from it ~ Or they used saffron. I have done some yarn dyeing, although not with saffron. On Jan 14, 2008 10:36 PM, Tamara P Duvall <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > On Jan 15, 2008, at 1:04, Adele Shaak wrote: > > > I have heard of this before; that the linen didn't "yellow" on its > > own, it was deliberately treated in some manner so that it became > > bright yellow. I don't know how long the colour lasted - linen is > > notoriously difficult to dye, > > Nowhere near as difficult as silk, which cannot tolerate very high > temperatures necessary for some dyes to "take" properly. Linen can be > boiled and no harm done... > > -- Bev (near Sooke, BC on beautiful Vancouver Island, west coast of Canada) - To unsubscribe send email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] containing the line: unsubscribe lace [EMAIL PROTECTED] For help, write to [EMAIL PROTECTED]
