Buttons and More Madder

Here are the Tagua nut buttons I dyed in the Madder plus alum acetate mordant. I love how they turned out. I like the idea of dyeing buttons for an outfit as well. It is just plain fun. The buttons can be purchased at Earthues. I have a link on the Fiber Links bar. There are a few kinds and you may have to contact the store to get more info. The buttons are a creamy white color in their original form. I put them in a bag made from an old nylon stocking and tied the bag to a ring that holds the skeins to move them around in the dyebath. The buttons should not rest on the bottom of the dyepot while cooking. I mordanted the buttons before dyeing as well.
To the left are the skeins I dyed in Madder with the addition of Cream of Tartar to the mordant bath. I love the color that results. I have done it before and got a much more golden orange. These are a rich, burnished red. Of course, I love the color as it is one of my favorites. One problem though, even though I used 1%, 5%, and 10% dyestuff to get light, medium, and dark DOS* the shades all look nearly identical! In fact, I really can't tell them apart. I know I used significantly different amounts for the dyestuff. I will have to look over my notes to see if I can find an error in calculations.
Finally, I placed the Madder skeins that were mordanted with alum acetate next to the skeins that had Cream of Tartar added so that you could see the difference. So strange that the camera changes the color of the alum acetate Madder skeins. They look more toward burgundy to the eye in person. However, you can tell the difference in color just by using a different mordant technique. Same dye, different mordant!
This is a good example of one of the many reasons I really like dyeing with these dyes. More dyeing tomorrow. I will either post tomorrow or on Sunday. -Renee
*see glossary