Working With the Dye Pots

I've kept the dye pots going almost non-stop for the past couple of weeks. In the foreground of the photo above is a rayon sundress & a couple of silk scarves dyed with Cochineal. Usually, we think of Cochineal (a tiny beetle shell) giving red, deep magenta or red-orange colour, and I did get those colours in the early stages of this particular dye-pot. I decided to keep working it as long as there was colour left, just to see what the progression would be. This is probably the 5th day of dyeing from the same pot. You can see that the reds are nearly gone, and more blues are left. I love this lilac-thistle colour!
These camisoles are dyed in Osage Orange from some sawdust gifted to me by a bow-maker. The camisole in the center was the first one into the pot & clearly picked up more of the orange hues. You can see how the color shifts with each suceeding piece in the dyepot. Such fun!