I Tried to Plant Dye Green with Weld + Iron | Does it really work?

Well, there you have it. You can actually achieve green with weld and iron. It is possible. I never believed that for quite a while. Hello and welcome to a new video and also my kitchen. I think you maybe know by now what being in the kitchen on this channel means because today we have some plant dyeing to do. And what plant dyeing will we do? You may ask. And my answer is... Weld. And if you don't know what weld is, if you don't know what plant dyeing is even, I have two other videos on this channel where I dye with first matter and walnut and then one where I try to dye with woad and that went terribly bad. I can show the fabrics to you if you want now because they are changing colors for every day. Like, they're changing colors all the time. I don't know what's happening with these fabrics. And now they're pink. Like, pink. Really pink. You maybe can see here. Nice dusty pink. But blue and pink is not our focus today. Today we're going to focus on weld and the color that gives, which is yellow. And weld is basically a flower, a plant that you dry and then you cook it and you do so much steps and then you will achieve that yellow, quite strong yellow color. And due to its strong pigment and also that it holds up the color very well, weld is often believed to be one of those plant dyeing plants that were used during history, before, you know, the chemical dyes were invented in the 19th century. But I have actually plant dyed with weld before, you know, the yellow kettle, for example. So maybe I thought that that was a bit too uninteresting to do in this video. So I wanted to do something more. I wanted to take this a step further. So I decided to try to blend in some iron as well. And what does iron do to a fabric? Well, it makes it darker. And if you have a yellow shade, that will probably make it green. Hopefully. So that is what I'm going to do today. I'm going to try to achieve green. But without doing several baths, you know, with blue and yellow and mix it, which you will have to do otherwise. Maybe the iron is a solution to my blue problem. Or really this will turn into a more like green, yellowish shade. So it's not a beautiful shade, maybe. But it's very interesting. So I really want to try this. And if this goes well, I will make a 17th century cartoon out of it. So I hope it does. I really hope it does. And according to my horrible calculations, I will need approximately two meters of this quite thick wool twill. And to be able to know how much iron you will need, water, weld and so on, you will need to do a lot of calculations. And this fabric is 530 grams per meter. And since I'm having two meters, that is 1060 grams of fabric. And for every 100 grams of fabric, I will need 150 grams of weld to get a strong yellow color. So according to these calculations, I will need to have 1600 grams of weld for this bath, which is quite much. So I was glad I actually had quite much. So yesterday I measured up 1600 grams of weld. And then I boiled some water. I think I boiled like eight liters of water or something. And then I took all that weld and put it in a bucket. And then I took all that boiling water and poured it onto the weld. And then I left all of that over the night. So that I have it all here. You don't really see that much water in here, because the weld has took all of that up. Gosh, this is a lot of weld. But before we're going to use the weld, we need to do some steps before. Because when you're planting a fabric and especially weld, you will need to put the fabric into a mordant bath. And today I'm going to use... I want to say alun, but that's the Swedish pronunciation of it. I don't know how you say it, but alun is what I'm going to use. Which is a quite common mordant. So what this basically does is that it makes the color go into the fibers better. And it also helps the fabric to keep that color. But the thing is, now we're going to the more uncertain parts in this. Which is the iron. And when we're going to add that. Because some people are saying that we're going to add the iron now. And some are saying that we're going to add it as the last thing we do. And I don't know what's right. And I don't know what's the best. So I honestly don't know. I honestly don't know. It is a lot of water that goes into a bath like this. And we're going to get all that into the pot. And also all the mordant. And we're going to start on around 40 degrees. When we're pouring in the mordant. And then add all the water. Bring the wet fabric and put it in. And then we're going to heat it up to 85 to 90 degrees. And let it be there for around an hour. Which it has been now. So now it's basically done. So we're just going to pour all of this away. It feels a bit strange because it's so much water. But that's what we need to do. I'm going to take the fabric up and cool it down. Okay, so here we have the weld from yesterday. So I feel this is quite straightforward. Because we're just going to take a lot of water again. And put it into the pot. And if I don't remember wrong. It's the same amount again. 3 to 5 liters of water per 100 grams of fabric. So I'm going to have around 45 liters of water. And then this. So I'm just going to pour all of that water into the pot. And then add all the welds into that water. And heat it up to 70 degrees for an hour again. Yeah, plant dying takes a while. And why we're doing this step. Is just because we want to extract all the pigment from the leaves in here. Because now they will not give us that much color. Even if we have dampened all of this overnight. And also we don't want all of these bits and pieces into the bath. Because obviously that could lead to a quite uneven color. And we don't want that. And we also want as strong color as possible. Otherwise I would gladly jump over this step. Because this is quite boring actually. So one hour later. And it still looks as uninteresting and brown and strange as it did before. And it has now cooled down a bit as well I think. And I thought that we could check now if this has got any color and pigments in it or not. And I often just take a paper and put it into the water to see if something happens. Isn't that yellow? I think so. It looks more like pee but that's a yellow color too. So I'm not unhappy. Okay it says 47 degrees which is actually very good. Because we don't want the bath to be too hot when putting in the fabric. Because that can chock the fibers and destroy the fabric. So around 40 degrees is very good. And now it's 47 which should be fine. But this is not really ready yet for the fabric. Because we have so many junk and pieces of leaves. And plants and seeds. And that is something we're going to take away now. So I'm just going to fetch a strainer and try to do this in a safe way. I don't know how because this is so much water. Can I move this at all? Okay not in a safe way anyway. Okay so here we have all the fabrics. And they are now wet as you maybe saw before. And we're just going to start the stove. And put the fabrics in. And that's always equally as fun and scary at the same time. Yeah let's do this. Wait what? I think this is taking color immediately. Look! Isn't that yellow? I mean and it's not even... This should go up to 70 degrees and now it's just 50. I think this is actually very very promising. Okay so I just thought about something. And that is that I have these two fabrics at home. And I've had them for quite a while because when it comes to historical clothing there is an interesting discussion about what the base colors of the fabrics really were. And there has been a rising idea that maybe all the fabrics that were dyed weren't white from the beginning. Which is quite obvious you know because all the shapes weren't white. Especially not when going back a few hundred years. And to achieve certain colors like black and dark brown, green and so on. Maybe white wool weren't used. And that's also one of the things I wanted to try and I just remembered it now. So that's why this is a bit improvised. Because I think that if I were to take two natural beige or brown, grey, dark natural colored anyway wool fabrics and put them into a strong yellow bath. Maybe that's another way to make green. Without iron. And I really want to try that. But now I obviously forgot it until now. And there isn't any mordant on these two. But honestly what's the worst thing that can happen? So obviously I couldn't resist to do an after bath after taking away the first fabrics. So now I have the terrible woad fabrics in there. And the interesting thing about them is that they are pink. But also partly purple and bluish tones sometimes. So it's going to be very interesting to see in what color they will turn out to be. And I also put one other white fabric in there to see if I could achieve a light yellow color. But in the meantime I thought that we could jump into the scary stuff. Which is the iron. And I have been putting off this for the whole video. For a reason. Because I'm actually quite nervous about this. Because as I've said in this video already, people are saying different things. Some are saying that iron change the colors very very rapidly. And even less than 1.25% may be enough to change the color. Some are saying 5%. Some are saying 10%. And on this package they are saying 20%. And I don't know. And the thing is, if you're taking too much the fibers could actually be destroyed. And it could also turn into black. And I don't want any of that. So what I think I will do is starting with a very very small amount. Because I think rather that than having too much. So right now I'm thinking about a half percent maybe of the fabric's total weight. And blending that with water in a bucket and then put the fabric in. That's my plan. But the thing is, iron sulfate can be very dangerous if handled wrong. So what I need to do is go outside and do this. Where I have good ventilation and where I don't have the risk of staining anywhere. And getting it in the wrong places. So let's do it! Good evening! I'm standing outside still with my fabrics. Here they are. I don't know how much you can see now. But they are there in their iron bath. But the thing is, nothing is happening. And I have been adding more iron. Several times even. I've been adding hot water, cold water, taking away water. The thing is, they have changed color a bit. But now they are more mustard yellow. More than green. I think it was a bit naive to think that I could turn this into green. Or there is something I missed here. That wouldn't surprise me though. But this frustrates me a lot. It really does. Anyway, I think I will have to take these fabrics inside now. And let them dry until tomorrow. Because I can't do anything more today. But it is very frustrating. See you tomorrow. I took a look at the fabrics just now. And I realized something. Take a look! Do you see that? It's green! I don't understand this. This is so strange. I mean, I put it in more iron yesterday before going to bed. And then I took it up. So something must have happened overnight. And I don't understand what I did. Okay, I think I will need to show you with a better camera. Because I think I actually succeeded. This is so strange. Okay, see you in a minute. Okay, here they are. I don't know how the colors are on the camera. But in real life they are beautiful. It's more than olive green. And more than moss green even. For me this is a calm and gentle forest green. Which was a shock actually. And I think they look absolutely beautiful. I mean, just look at them. They are so nice. And as always with plant dying, you ask yourself. Do I really suit in this color? No. Would I ever buy a fabric in this color from a fabric store? No. Do I still love the color? Yes. And that's what I think is so beautiful with plant dying. You never know what you're gonna get until you get it. So yeah, I'm quite sure that I have the fabric now for my 17th century cuddle. Which is such a nice surprise. So here we have the white wool fabric which I put in the last thing I did. So obviously the color turned out very light and very... I think this might be very good to maybe dye over with blue or something. And then we have the woad fabrics. Those vessels were very interesting actually. Because it's a very unclear color. In certain parts of them they are yellow. In certain parts they are like beige. And in some parts they are green. Which is very, very nice to see. Let's see if we can find one green. This one. I love this one. I think this was one of the more blue fabrics. So it became quite green. So a very nice one. And then we also have those natural colored fabrics. And it didn't really happen that much to them. I think it was due to them being quite dark. And the bath being too pale. Because it was an afterbath. But this one actually became... Not green. More like a muted yellow in some way. Maybe some beige with a green tint to it. And this one looks gray here. But it actually has a green tone to it in real life. I think you maybe can see that better in the sun. It would actually be very interesting to take a strong yellow bath to a natural dark fabric like this. Because then maybe you could achieve a greener color. And that would be very nice to have in a medieval kirtle for example. But my favorite is by far these. Wait, I just want to try something. You remember this color? Which I dyed one year ago on my walnut and madder video. I mean, do you see this combination? Okay, so this is going to be the jacket of my 17th century costume. And this is going to be the underkirtle and skirt. I couldn't be happier with the colors. Honestly, I love these two together. Well, there you have it. You can actually achieve green with weld and iron. It is possible. I never believed that for quite a while. I think the secret was, looking back now, to take a bigger amount of iron. 0.5% wasn't enough at all. I don't know how much I put in, but much more, maybe like 5 or 10%. And also it took a while for me. They said in the recipes that it would go very quickly. But for me it took like a while. So I really hope that I haven't destroyed the fibers now. But I guess that's something I will see. So I hope you liked this video. This was so much fun to make actually. And now I'm so, so excited to begin with my 17th century costume. I think I will need to start today or something. Which will obviously be a video on the channel. So that is something maybe to look forward to, if you are interested. Otherwise, I have two videos which I think will come up very, very soon. Maybe even within these two weeks. But until then, I hope you take care and we'll see each other soon.