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Week 11 – The Science of Dyeing

by | Nov 18, 2017

Week 11 – The Science of Dyeing

Dear Third Grade community,

I was so proud of their work presenting thanks for the sun, moon, and stars, our sections of the Haudenosaunee Address for our Harvest Assembly. Our block work has been focused on fibers, and I was worried at first that this would be too disparate and “thrown together.” I shouldn’t have worried! They came through and did a fabulous job, even choreographing some parts themselves. This year I can see that they have more inner strength to perform in front of a large group of people than they have in the past.

UPCOMING EVENTS

3rd Grade Parent Evenings,Wed, Jan 31, 7:00-9:00 and Wed, April 18, 7:00-9:00. Please reserve these dates on your calendar.

Yuletide Fest, Saturday, Dec 9, 4:00-7:00 at City Garden. Sign up to bring something or volunteer to work a shift.

CLASSROOM HIGHLIGHTS

We ended our fibers block with the exploration of cotton and learning the basics of dyeing wool using good old mother nature. Natural dyeing is a beautiful combination of science and art. It’s about botany, chemistry, and even a little bit of zoology. And oh, the colors that unfold! There is a magic in it that every third grader can appreciate. And the colors that come are always different, no matter how exact you are in your measurements. A living experiment of color. What color will it give us? What part of the plant should we use? And did you image the dye bath would smell so bad/good/like hay/like compost? And then the oh’s and ah’s that come when the final product is revealed to be the same or drastically different from your hypothesis.

To get the color to attach, the yarn must be mordanted, which is a process of soaking the fiber in water with a metal like alum or iron so that metal may bond with the fiber. When we turn to our dye bath, we explore the plant itself and ask why it may have a color to give us, and which part of the plant that would be. We make a dye bath (color-filled water that will stick to the fiber) by first combining the dye stuff, like onion skins, and water, and then adding heat. Just like how the yeast for the challah bread needs warmth and sugar to get active, the plant needs heat to give up its color. We also need heat to bind that color to the wool.
This week we dyed with the goldenrod we harvested from the back gardens on Michaelmas day and also some of the onion skins we collected. While our own hand-spun yarn is almost ready to dye, the honor of the first dye baths went to the first white squares they knit when they were in first grade. We’ll continue to dye and over-dye (add a second color to get a new color) these as we do more experiments throughout the year.
In conjunction with our color experiments, they have been hearing stories that feature the Dine (or Navajo), who are known for their vibrant plant dyes. I’ll close with a poem written by a Dine tribesperson that, for me, encapsulates the wonder and magic of natural dyeing.

Words to a Young Weaver – Noel Bennet

We are the Dineh, my child

With the earth we live

With the Sky we live

    With the plants we live

    We know their ways.

Heed well the plants, my child.

Learn the ways of each, my child.

Some you must ask for gently,

    Pick their tips

    Heat them softly

    And they give.

Some you must demand of strongly

    Dig through the rocks

    Pound hard the roots

    You will tire

    And they will give.

Give to each as it requires

    It will give to you, my child,

    It will give to you.

We are the Dineh,

With the earth we live

With the Sky we live

     With the Plants we live

     We know their ways

Nature comes as it comes

    Gives as it gives

We do not plan Nature.

We do not control Nature.

    It is so in dyeing wool.

Receive your colors as they come.

Learn the ways of each.

Some plants dye strong enough alone.

Some take strength from other things.

  The Ashes of the Juniper

  The Minerals of the Soil

Give to the weak, strength, my child

And the colors that come are good.

The Red of the cliffs at sunset,

Will come.

The Yellow of the shimmering sand,

Will come.

The Green of the plant life around,

Will come.

The Black of the thunderclouds heavy,

Will come.

All good colors will come, my child.

All good colors will come.

And do not try to match a color of the past.

  This is a new day.

  This is a new plant.

The colors that come forth are many,

None will be the same

And each that comes is good.

And each that comes is good.