This week I am mordanting a new batch of clothing for my spring line of botanically dyed baby clothes, soon to be available on my Esty store (www.etsy.com/shop/WildColorBaby). Well, you may wonder, what is mordanting? Botanical chemistry, mysterious witchy stuff, old recipes, traditional knowledge, but mostly it's hardcore science that is best explained by molecular investigation. The theory involved in this type of exploration is simply not for me. I somehow managed to make it through high school, community college, and receive my Bachelors degree without taking a single real hard science class(this was not an accident, I am totally repelled by complex math). However, I am a dye artist and more than half of what I do is mordant. Unfortunately for color lovers like myself, it is not all about pulling beautiful things out of a pot. A lot of it is measuring, math, and (natural)chemical reactions. Because I work with cotton, which is a cellulose fiber, I mordant my textiles with Alum Acetate and Tannin. Alum is a naturally occurring chemical compound that is used in baking soda and water purification treatment plants around the country. You can find it at the grocery store in the spice section because people often use it for pickling. I use Alum Acetate though, which is a slightly more complex compound(currently used in over-the-counter ointments to treat skin afflictions) and I order mine for Earthues. I also get my Tannin from Eathues, but I could spend a lot of time getting it from a variety of natural sources, like black tea. "The mordanting of cotton and linen by the alum-tannic acid-alum method is really the breaking apart of the fiber in ways which allow additional chemical and electrical sites to be available...It may also include the permanent incorporation of parts of the tannic acid into the carbohydrate molecules, which make up the cellulose fibers, and then be followed by the bonding of the dyestuffs to salt bridges or hydrogen bridges in these bound tannic acid fragments as well as to those in the cellulous fiber itself.('The Chemistry of Dyeing', Beth Parrott, 1973)" Blah blah, what?! I had to read this five times to understand it. It is amazing though if you actually get what it is that is happening. In layman's terms, I am breaking the white fibers down and opening them up to create space for the permanent incorporation of colorful dyestuffs. Here is what is looks like in my kitchen, I mean 'studio'. First, just for context, there is usually an eight month old playing with lids at my feet and a two and a half year old asking me to prepare her a different type of snack every 10 minutes. Then there are my two burners and my two large canning pots. And my dye notebook that is a collection of scribbled notes, recipes and conversion equations. Usually I have around 3 pounds of dry clothing that I have measured out on a vintage produce scale that I bought at a garage sale for five dollars. It looks really cool, is it precise? Probably not. Also my older daughter usually assists with this task, so that adds a whole other element to it. I divide the pile into my two pots and scour it with Earthues scour and soda ash. This really deep cleans the clothes and removes any sort of synthetic or natural chemicals from the clothing that could inhibit the dye process. Rinse. Make a Tannin bath, immerse clothing and let it sit for 24 hours. Rinse. Make a Alum Acetate bath, immerse clothing and let it sit for 12 hours. Wring each piece out, fold, sort, and bag it. Stick it in the fridge for at least 3 days. The preparation involved in botanical dyeing really is a lot of work. But it is so worth it! Every time I successfully and permanently transform a boring white thing into a deep red using a root, or a vibrant yellow using a flower, or saturated purple using a tree, or a brilliant pink using a beetle, I still feel kind of magical and witchy even though I know it really comes down to molecules.
