the dye.
here's a picture of my cochineal extract. it comes from a parasitic insect that lives on cacti, and it's used today mostly in food coloring, but it has a long history as an important red dye. it was even the dye used to dye the red coats red!... now it's going to dye some wool that i'll use later to make a scarf! i'm really excited about this one. Ever since reading the story behind cochineal in Victoria Finlay's book on color, i've been enchanted with this one. its origin was a very well kept secret for a very long time... and now it's sitting on my stove dyeing a skein of my very own wool! :)
into the dye pot.
just under 2 teaspoons of the red cochineal extract (above) turned my dye water nearly black with super intense dye color! wow!! that's powerful stuff!
the wool.
here's the freshly clean & mordanted wool, waiting to be dunked in the dye bath.
looks like it's taking the color on immediately! can't wait to see how it comes out.
it's sitting in the dye bath now. i'll leave it there over night!
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