Rust Dyeing

This week I have been trying out  a new type of dyeing.  I think it's really a bit more like batiking without the resist than dyeing, but either way it's been fun and the results are pretty cool!

Rusted fabric, how neat!.

 I came across the idea of rust dyeing thanks to a friend's facebook post,  I immediately thought, hey, that's cool and I have everything I need.  Unfortunately, as usual, this lead to me getting going and thus I have no how-to pictures.  I'm sure I'll be doing this again soon though, so I'll get pictures then.

All wrapped up.  There's a horseshoe in the middle.

The basic premise of rust dyeing is that you start with a piece of fabric, generally white or cream, but any light color should work.  Silk, wool, and cotton are best.  But I imagine most natural fibers should be fine.  I used two silk scarves since that's what I had on hand.  Soak the fabric to get it soaking wet (a 2:1 water and vinegar solution is ideal), then wrap, tie, etc it to any rusty metal.  The important thing is getting good contact between the metal and the fabric.  If you have a flat grate or something like that, lay the fabric out and place something heavy on top.

I had some old chain and a couple horseshoes around the house.  So I twisted and folded and wraped until as much of the fabric as I could manage was touching the metal.  Then, I gave it a dunking in the water/vinegar solution and set it out on the back deck.  Most instructions I found said to give it a spray, but I was too lazy to find an empty spray bottle yesterday.

It's a bit breezy outside and I didn't want the
silk to fly away overnight, so this is drying in
in the bathroom.  My husband is thrilled.

Then, just leave it alone for at least 24 hours.  Make sure it stays damp, leave it as long as you want.  A longer time = darker colors generally.  When you think it's done, unwrap, rinse in clean, cool water and hang up to dry.  Or, if you aren't happy with the way it looks, wrap it up and let it sit again.

I have one scarf I'm happy with and one that is all wrapped up again.  I read that using tannin water or other dye modifiers can get the rust spots to turn brown and black shades, I hope to try that next time around!