On Period Dyeing. Part Two.

I've been a fiber arts geek for as long as I can remember.  Textiles have always intrigued me.  How to make them; to dye them; to recycle them; to wear them; to use them; to see the art in them (e.g. historically or haute couture) to build them....this list could go on ad nauseam.


One thing I've always been interested in is the dyeing of fibers in all of the ways from ancient to modern. My mother has always been so kind.  She allowed all kinds of dyeing experiments in my home to the tune of several ruined copper pots and battered plants. 


So yesterday - I ripped apart my shop to find all of my Elizabethan color theory.  Primarily...why I use the eggshells to dye clothing.  I'd been doing it so long - I no longer had an organic chemistry basis in fact or even in recollection.


In respect of the lovely organic cage free wonder creatures, I decided nothing would do but I had to find the reason.


Here's what I got for those of you playing Fiber Enthusiast at home [with citations since this is research and not me, Lord knows]:

"Discarded eggshells are often used as a plant fertilizer and are effective liming sources. This is because eggshells contain calcium that raises, or neutralizes, the pH level of overly acidic soil. Chicken eggshells can be used as an alternative soil stabilizer like lime since they have the same chemical composition.

Eggshell membrane consists of collagen as a component. Collagen is a type of protein, fibrous in nature that connects and supports other bodily tissues, such as skin, bone, tendons, muscles and cartilage. Collagen has been isolated mainly from bovine and swine skins and bones Collagen used in medicine, biochemical, pharmaceutical, food and cosmetics industries.

Eggshell membrane collagen is very low in autoimmune and allergic reactions as well as high in bio-safety and is of similar characteristics to other mammalian collagen.

Eggshells/shell membranes have multiple uses in nutrition, medicine, construction and art works"

[International Journal of Poultry Science]

Yes.  Apparently, there is an International Journal of Poultry Science. LOL


 Fascinating.  I then, found this:

"Brazilwood:
Origin and History: Brazilwood dye comes from the Caesalpinia tree, and was named "brazil" even before the discovery of that country. In its natural state, brazilwood is a light, brownish red; mahogany in appearance. It is sold nowadays in blocks or chips, and sometimes in scrapings or shavings (as of 1960s).

In the Middle Ages it was always sold in blocks, and the craftsman was obliged to reduce the solid wood to powder by scraping it with a piece of glass, or filing or pounding, as the finer the powder the more easily the color can be extracted from it.

Making the Pigment: When the brownish powder of brazilwood is wet it turns reddish. When steeped in a solution of lye it colors the liquid deep, purplish red, and hot solutions of alum extract the color from the wood in the form of an orange-red liquor. Most medieval brazil lakes were made either from the extract made with lye (a weak solution of potassium carbonate) or from the alum extract, as these solutions get the color out of the wood more thoroughly than plain water. Just what the shade is that is extracted depends on how acid or alkaline the mixture of solutions is made. The more alum: the warmer the color, the more lye: the colder the red. The precipitate is collected by settling and pouring off the liquid.

The pasty mass is smeared on an absorbent surface such as a new brick or tile to dry. Then it is ground, and has the same degree of transparency as the alumina of which it is chiefly composed. When chalk is added to the alum, a more opaque pink rose is produced by the resulting admixture of calcium sulphate to the alumina lake. When white lead was used, it had no other effect than to give substance to the lake and slightly less transparency, rather than to make it opaque.

When marble dust and powdered egg shells were added to newly formed lakes, they further controlled the color produced by reacting chemically with any excess of alum which might give a brown cast instead of rose. In all these cases the brazil color was mordanted upon the white material, so to speak, dyed with the brazil, and the pigment so formed was different from a mixture of a finished lake with a white pigment.

Artistic Notes: Brazil lakes are not very permanent.  

[Pigments:  Historical, Chemical and Artistic Importance of Coloring Agents]

 I'll investigate further.  LOL