An easier way to do it is to use fabric dye.
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Perhaps a premier clothing manufacturer such as Hickey-Freeman would bring Ms. Pombo to Rochester NY to give a demonstration to weavers and other fabric artists in New York State. Perhaps even using her fabrics for linings and men's accessories.
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The article fails to mention that fiber should be pre-mordanted with a mordant solution such as 10-15% Alum which allows the avocado dye to bind with the fiber and not fade.
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You can achieve a similar color by boiling the papery skins of onions. It’s free and eco way to dye Easter eggs.
The blotchy color on those sample pieces of fabric look too much like wound wrappings stains by blood. Not appealing in any way.
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...this feels a little like the blue and gold dress thing, to me. I don’t see pink, or rose, or dusty rose. The most saturated-color sample in the top photo is exactly the color I see in the bag of ground red chili pepper currently sitting on my kitchen counter.
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I am a spinner and I love using avocado to dye my wools as pink is my favorite color. As a note you can use both the pit as well as the skins of avocados for various hues. You can clean them off and chop them up into bits to save in a ziploc bag until you have accumulated enough and are ready to start dying.
I have a lovely shawl I spun, dyed, and knit that is a natural wool and avocado pink!
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This is nothing new since hippies in the 60's experimented with all types of plant dyes.
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Of course, before the ‘hippies,’ there was Also, everyone else on the planet. And, you know, all of history. Perspective is long.
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Wonderful story! My favorite shades of rose.
There doesn't seem to be any mention of the stability of the dye in the finished garment. That's always a question, even with commercial dyes because color behaves differently with different fibers. Can one be caught in the rain? Can this garment be washed?
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@Nadia I have dyed with avocados for the past ten years and it is wash fast, however it is not very light stable. It will fade in sunlight over a few months. Avocado dyes react with ph when wet- alkali makes it more pink (such as washing soda or soda ash) so be mindful to use a natural detergent when washing.
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@Nadia you can use a mordant to “lock in” the color.
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@Edie
Thank you, Edie. Much appreciated.
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This is also a kind of second ( or third or fourth) of using natural and fairly easily available plant sources for dying fabrics. There were ( probably are) also many weavers and those who produce wool that they dye, out there.
It's good to carry on and expand the tradition. It maintains the sort of history of people that may be lost without the interest of a new generation.
Quite interesting to learn how much the hardness or other qualities of the water, affects the color that the fabric eventually reveals.
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Totally delightful story.
All beautiful -- the artist and her work.
The imagination runs wild at the thought of these colors in cloth.
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