Natural Dye Basics - How to Premordant Wool Yarn with Alum | Last Minute Laura

Hey friends, welcome back. Today I am going to be getting my yarn to the next step before doing some natural dye. Today I am going to be doing a show on mordanting.
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Alright so here is where we are at right now. I have my pot; I am going to fill it up with warm water. I’ve got some cream fo tartar, and I’ve got some alum powder.
Today I am going to be premordanting some wool yarn.
If you’re looking for a video on premordanting cotton or bamboo or hemp, or something that is plant based, this is not the same system. Not the same video.
We are doing protein fibre today.
I am focusing on wool, but this would work for silk, or other animal, protein fibre.
I am going to be doing a premordant of one hank of yarn, so I am going to use one tablespoon of alum powder, and about half a tablespoon of cream of tartar.
The alum powder is the premodants, and the cream of tartar helps to soften the yarn after the metal salt essentially frays it.
So what do I mean when I say fray?
Mordanting is the process fo preparing your yarn (fibre) to accept the dye.
The first process we did was scouring. That was washing the wool (getting all the extra stuff off the outside the wool)
In the next step we deposit a metal salt (alum) it’ not dangerous by the way its used in food stuff
Anyway
This part of the process binds the metal salt to the fibre which allows the fibre to more equally and more permanently accept the dye in a dye bath.
So if you weren’t to do this process on your yarn, the yarn will accept the dye, BUT the sun, washing and time will fade the dye.
The bond between the fibre and the dye will break down.
This is called colorfastness, and wash fastness, and lightfastness.
By premordanting fibre, the bond is much stronger, leading to a more permanent dye.
Some dye stuffs have a mordant built in. This means you can skip this step in some cases.
There are a few kinds of mordants: Tannins, iron, alum, other metals
Some metal salts, like copper or tin are more toxic, so I do not play with them. Do a little more reading on natural dye to learn about the toxicity of your mordants, color modifiers, etc BEFORE using them.
I don’t tend to use anything where I would need to buy a specific toxic chemical. Instead I would rather make them or use something that is food safe.I use iron because I can make it, Alum because it’s food safe, and tannins, because they are found in lots of things like: avocado, rhubarb, walnuts, acorns, coffee, and tea.
Iron can be found in the rust on metal items
Alum can be found in the pickling section at the grocery store
And so on.
In this video I will not be using tannins, or iron. We are just going to be doing alum.
I know it’s a lot, but I think it is useful
The way I have experienced natural dye, and mordanting;
If I premordant with iron- I get dark cool sad tones (grey, green, brown blue, black)
If I premordant with alum, I get more bright, warm, and punchy colours (yellow, orange, lime green)
For Example,
If I use onion skins for a dye bath, which creates a yellow color,
If I premordant a yarn with iron, that colour will cool down in tone and darken into an olive green colour
But if I use alum it will brighten and sort of bolden it to create a more sunshine yellow
You can play with PH (baking soda, lemon juice, vinegar, lye) to see some really interesting colour changes
This is just an entry level , first step for mordanting though.
SO I am going to take about a table spoon of my alum and about half that much cram of tartar and add it to my pot. Then I will fill the pot about half way with warm water.
SAFETY FIRST
Although alum is safe and it used in food stuff, not all natural dye stuff is food safe, so don’t use your dye stuff for food stuff.
Use separate pots and tongs and tools for natural dye stuff.
Keep Space between them.
When doing natural dye stuff, keep food stuff away.
Not all the ingredients are food safe, not all the plants are food safe.
Next, I will turn the heat on to low, dissolving the cream of tartar and alum into the pot of water. Do not let water boil, or simmer, just get it really hot.
You want enough water in the pot so that your yarn can flow freely
Next, I will add the scoured yarn to the mordant pot.
I will let it sit for about an hour
No bubbles, just hot.
After an hour, take the yarn out of the pot and give it a really good rinse in hot water.
You can reuse the premordant water for future skeins!
Once the yarn is rinsed, you can let it dry out, and have it set aside for future dye pots. Otherwise, the yarn is now ready to dye!
As far as premordanting wool with alum, That’s it!
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Thanks for the vid!

[@stuartron29]

thank you, great video, very helpful

[@thebe1azi500]

Love having simple references for all the steps, for when I inevitably forget what I’m doing

[@annespudvilas7877]

i'll be following as i reacquaint myself with eco-dyeing and start giving workshops again here in the land of Oz

[@Stephanie_R.]

I made it to the tail end of the premiere 😁. I just saw the replay video. It was very well done and helpful. (On a side note, I love the apron 👍) Thank you for sharing your process. Stay safe and happy everyone! 💜

[@LastMinuteLaura]

Awesome! Thank you!

[@annespudvilas7877]

lovely clip laura - great natural style and excellent information - thank you :0)

[@kathrynbassett1535]

Thank you 😊 really helpful and easy to follow

[@AditiNath1234]

Great👍👍

[@LastMinuteLaura]

Thank you 👍

[@amandascottmusic]

awesome

[@LastMinuteLaura]

thanks!

[@kandysmattatall9116]

great video, very informative, and joy inspiring apron for sure, love it, hit the like and subscribe all, and come back for more, and join us in our lives, make some friends, best community on the youtube block!!

[@MorriganShay]

How much alum do you add to subsequent batches?