We had a big wind storm yesterday and this morning when I went to remove fallen branches and cedar debris from the driveway, I remembered a video of someone making color from pinecones. We have an abundance of cedar cones always blowing down on the driveway. Free color!
I did a little test with some of the fallen cedar cones, and also green cedar leaves, brown cedar leaves and some green hinoki leaves (no hinoki cones fell in the windstorm)
My favorite way to test new material is alcohol maceration. Basically smash (or cut) up the material and let it soak in a bit of isopropyl alcohol. This is a good indication of whether there’s going to be color. It’s quick – you’ll see color right away and leaving it for a couple of hours will bring the color out well.
I got nice results from three of the four tests:
The sugi cones made a rich golden color. It didn’t sample well when painted onto the paper, but a dipped paper soaked up color and dried nicely. I would like to try boiling these and then dying some fabric. I think they have lots of tannin in them which should mean interesting dark tones when paired with iron mordants.
These are green sugi branches. I cut them with scissors before putting them into the alcohol. They produced a green that looked nicer in the cup than on the paper. I would like to try extracting color again after doing a better job mascerating them.
The Hinoki was the star of the show for me. The green is vibrant! I don’t have a lot of hinoki in my immediate area, but I know there are plenty of trees up on the mountain roads. I might have to do a little foraging for extra material. I will try simmering as well as a larger batch of alcohol extraction.
What didn’t work well was the brown cedar leaf. It produced a mid yellow. It’s a shame, because we have so many dried cedar leaflets on the ground, in the drainage ditches, and pretty much everywhere.
I’ve seen people dyeing with cedar bark to create a pinkish tone. I guess I will peel some of the sticks that I removed from the driveway and see what happens.
I am delighted that one windstorm has given me at least a couple more days of playtime with the botanicals that blew off the trees.
