Avocado dye¶
dyeing textiles with avocado.¶
In this week's kit some smashed avocado pits were supplied. However my bag had grown quite a lot of mold. I had seen online that avocado can produce the most beautiful clean pinks, rather than more dulled browns. So I mined the Avocado pits from my freezer. I store the pits from the avocados i eat in the freezer. Usualy to add to breakfast smoothies and for homemade cosmetics like a face scrub and a facemask.
Research¶
"Because I wanted the most clean pink, I opted to peel the avocado pips. I made one fabric dye with the addition of Soda and one without. The results were surprising. The soda mix became much more redish strong pink. And the non soda pink had more orange hues. The surpise came after the dyeing process. The pink with soda was cleaner, but it was also a lot lighter in the result.
I also had a rotten Avocado which were I soaked only the peel. The soaked liquid became very brown. So I opted to not take it to a dyeing stage. The brownness seemed to be mostly created because of the leftover dried flesh on the skins. "
"Because I wanted the most clean pink, I opted to peel the avocado pips. I made one fabric dye with the addition of Soda and one without. The results were surprising. The soda mix became much more redish strong pink. And the non soda pink had more orange hues. The surpise came after the dyeing process. The pink with soda was cleaner, but it was also a lot lighter in the result.
I also had a rotten Avocado which were I soaked only the cleaned peel. The soaked liquid became very brown. So I opted to not take it to a dyeing stage. The brownness seemed to be mostly created because of the leftover dried flesh on the skins. Next time I will make sure to clean the peel more thoroughly and to give the bath more love and attention.
Useful links¶
Recipe¶
// Avocado dye recipe
** Ingredients **
3 Avocado pits
3 Liters of water (preferably filtered & soft)
1/2 a teaspoon of Soda
Peel the (fresh) avocado seeds. If you get them from the freezer and leave them out to thaw for a day the skin should peel of like paper. If not use a knife to help peel the avocado pit. Smash the pits in a pestle and mortar, or put them in a bag and smash with a hammer. Try not to go overboard, a mush will be harder to remove from your dyebath later.
Add the smashed pits to to the water in a pan or pot. I opted for a glass ovenproof dish. You can easily follow the development of the colour and using an oven makes it easier to ensure your dye doesnt boil. Boiling usually results in duller browner colours, and i wanted the cleanest pink possible.
This is also why I added halp a teaspoon of soda ash. Actually I experimented by splitting the dye bath in two and adding some soda to one and not the other. The Avocado bath with the soda produced much cleaner results.
Gallery¶
