Avocado dye

After a lot of procrastination, it finally became time to dye with all the avocado skins and pits I’ve been saving up for the past six months or so. Need the freezer space. I also made some progress on my Maiwa clothing dyeing. The cotton shift was ready to dye, having been scoured, tannin-soaked, and soymilk-soaked earlier this year. And left to cure for a few months.

Here’s the cotton shift bundle, after a good soaking in avocado pit dye. The shift has coreopsis and garland chrysanthemum flowers, raspberry and cotinus leaves around the neckline. I didn’t put any additional plant material down the length of the shift, trying to keep it simple for once.

The blossoms printed quite well leaving a pattern of dots all down the length of the shift. The leaves did not print at all. I never really know what’s going to happen. But I like the color and the vague shibori-type stripes that resulted.

Of course, I had to dye some more with the rich bath of avocado pit dye. I had two linen squares soaked in soy milk, ready to make samples. And I wound some more No. 5 silk/cotton thread onto sticks. I made two separate baths for different colors, simply adding some iron vinegar to half the bath.