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Tumeric:Its more than a spice

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Aug 6, 1999

TUMERIC: its more than a spice By Lili Pintea-Reed

Tumeric --- yes that seldom used spice on the shelf--- makes a wonderful deep gold dye on protein (wool, mohair, etc) and cellulose fibers (cotton, ramie, flax, etc.)and *does not* need a mordant. In the Orient it is used as a substitute for the much more expensive saffron in dyeing monks cloaks.

Here are some of my dyeing experiments below:

MATERIALS

one ounce ground tumeric

a gallon of water

one gallon plus pot

old dish towel to strain mixture (optional)

seive (optional)

Directions: Experiment #1 Boil the water and tumeric to extract dye and let it sit over night. It will be a greenish/yellow color with bits of dye plant floating about it. You can re-heat and add the skeins directly to the mixture. This will produce the best color. I got a very rich orangey/gold on wool, but it took forever to rinse all the little bits of ground tumeric root off the yarn.

Experiment #2 On my second attempt I let the dye sit over night and strained it through a cloth-lined sieve to catch the dye stuff... Its a very powerful dye. The old dish towel still has a nice yellow circle in the middle from the dye strainings. I added several skeins of wool, and a few sample skeins of cotton and ramie. They all took on a wonderful rich deep gold color --- very much more intense than most of the natural dyeing I've done. Skeins dyed in the afterbath were increasingly lighter gold with touches of green.

Experiment #3 As the after bath exhausted to a light gold, I threw a bit of red koolaide and some vinegar in the pot. I dyed one skein of wool a sort of peach color. It was quite pretty and the vinegar had no effect on the color.

I was very pleased with these results. I'd recommend tumeric dyeing to anyone as it is cheap to do, and the materials are very easy to aquire at the local grocery. Its safe for kids and needs no mordant at all. My six year old loved helping make yellow. My results have been fast through normal hand washing and wear. No fading yet. Actually, the dish towel has been repeatedly bleached and the yellow circle is still very much there... So watch where you spill....!!! :-))

Lili

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