some eco dyeing

I brought from a recent dog walk some gum tree leaves home

so I decided to do some eco dyeing experiments

I used eucalyptus (bottom) and griselina  (the yellow bigger ones) and some leaves of a weed I don't know the name of

arranged them on half of the dry silk scarf

folded the rest over

and made a bundle

I made some sort of tripod from an old leftover wire from the aviary

put water with some vinegar in the pot and tried to close the pot very firmly with foil and an old lid.
I let it steam for about an hour.
After cooling down a bit I had a look to the bundle

and I was a bit disappointed because there was hardly any colour to see.

So I steamed it for another hour but still there was not much change. So in the end I put the bundle into the hot water after turning off the power and let it cool over night.

In the morning I had this result

eucalyptus is clearly visible but not very dark

not much to see from the griselina, just some hints of pink
and nothing from the unknown weed

It is still not very colourful but at least some prints are visible.

I put the used eucalyptus leaves back into the water and added some more leaves and also some vinegar and put in an old stained white t-shirt

This is now slowly simmering and I will let it cool over night.

In the meantime the silk scarf is dry and shows the prints a little bit better

I think I will put some more leaves on another time to add some more pattern. First I need to read India's books another time to find out what I could do differently to achieve better colour.