by Lili Pintea-Reed
While my husband was in the ARMY we lived all over the south and southwest USA. Our final stop was the southwest part of Oklahoma in a desert area with lots of tarantulas and scorpions and some of the most beautiful scenery in the world. It was also the home of the prickly pear plant, a type of cactus. Every spring the rains came and the cactus bloomed. Summer brought drought but it also the ripening of the prickly red fruit. The native peoples in the area have used the fruit for food and dyeing since times pre-historic. Unlike grocery store prickly pear, the wild fruit is a smaller and more bland tasting. It is a nice bright red...However it makes a decent juice when mixed with cranberry (all disclaimers about eating wild plants apply). I picked the fruit with corn tongs to save my fingers but some friends used heavy gloves. The Native Americans used two sticks pinched together to avoid the sharp thorns.
To dye with the plant, squash the fruit and place the skeins directly in the crushed pulp. I mordanted first with alum, but the native Americans didn't do this. I have read they used urine as a mordant but never tried it....:-))....Let the mixture sit for several days fermenting in the sun. Its supposed to do this. Check the yarn periodically, and when the color has taken remove. I've been told if one over ferments the color fades, but I never experienced this. I got a nice pinky-red....
I've been told that a more pure red can be obtained by the urine mordant method, but I was not going to have a pot of fermenting urine around a small child.... Maybe some day... "that pot dear...ahhh...oh nothing just some dye stuff..."
To learn more about Native American dyeing go to:
http://www.nativeweb.org
Happy Dyeing...
Lili
