Sunrise muddyed jeans/On mud dying in general

[simontuntelder]

Great update. Interesting.

[giuls]

calling dralfonzo,

update pls.

i def. think my next pair will be mud dyed.

[dralfonzo]

haha. soon guys

[dralfonzo]

UPDATE

So the stinking bucket of logwood vinegar and nails has been fermenting for about 2/3 weeks now? Today I mixed the solution together with a mixture of mud and compost and water, and sloshed it all around for a bit. I'm gonna leave it for probably about 3 weeks ish, giving it a mix around every few days. I've thrown in a white tee as well for BigYen, see how it comes out.

Lots of pics;

man this stuff is stinking now, its all mouldy on top and everything.

lab rats

added some compost. maybe the jeans will grow.

bleurrrghhh.

Please let me finish updating before replying to stop the thread getting broken up

[dralfonzo]

these have lots all the rust

mixy mixy

[dralfonzo]

BigYen's white tee;

mixy mixdog

tshirt colonic

so now its gonna veg out in its little stinking mud bath for a few weeks. I'm thinking I might make a little label to stitch onto the tee and jeans. Spare time permitting.

laterzzzzz.

[Bigyen]

Thank you so much!

Label would be fresh, but no worries.

Psyched to see how this all turns out.

[cman]

this is cool. can't wait to see how those jeans turn out.

[raWorkshop]

Oh gross. I'm excited.

[untungl]

looks awesome already!

[Blacktocomm]

My only worry would be that after fermenting in that stuff for a couple weeks that the smell would be permastank on the clothes. But it does look pretty cool. I don't know if I can wait to see the finished product.

[aaarrrgh]

This is fantastic. Can't wait to see how this little project is going to turn out!

[Akira]

subscribed! this seems like a great project and those Sunrise jeans look great, love that shine

[ringring]

Thanks for the excellent update good Doctor Alfonzo. Nice touch with the compost. I wonder what effect it will have on the dye process? Serendipitously, the traditional way of processing Woad in Europe and Dyer's Knotweed (Tade Ai) in Japan is basically composting.

It's funny how, when you've been mulling a subject, that you tend to notice objects or patterns in your surroundings that converge with the topic of your thoughts. Yesterday, I was reading the Hans Christian Anderson story where the wicked Queen rubbed walnut juice onto the Princess to dye her a darker colour. Perhaps another project would be to throw in a jar or two of inky pickled walnuts onto a pair of jeans. Saving a couple for a slice of Stilton.

Just the other day, I found myself on a train meandering through the contrasting landscape of small scale agriculture, banana plantations, palm tree farms and industrial revolution that is Southern China.

I had been attempting steer a Szechuanese lady into a conversation about the natural indigo use in her native province (Lantian, the same plant as Ryukyu Ai which is still used for dyeing monk's robes in Okinawa, Japan) and was hoping to catch a glimpse of some more left-field indigo plants such as tea indigo or the Pearl river delta native - water jasmine, or even the Chinese Lacquer tree, which for anyone interested in the macabre, was used in the Japanese Sokushinbutsu ritual of self mummification. Don't try that one at home DrAlfonzo

Anyway, glazing from the train window, I noticed the mud that bordered the rice paddies was black, the decomposing vegetation black that would be tannin rich. This contrasted with the red ochre coloured earth of the surrounding fields and rail embankments. The red indicated iron oxide, which is traditionally mixed with oil to make paint. My immediate thought was that this would be a good place to bury a pair of jeans

I'd heard of the mud-dyeing tradition in Guangdong province that produced silks with a shower resistant coating, if you like a lo-tech predecessor to Goretex. By luck, I stumbled across it, in a modern shopping mall, selling a product called Xiang Yunsha and again it became apparent that tannins had a vita role in the dyeing process. The silks are dyeing with the juice of a yam (a true yam, not a sweet potato) Dioscorea Cirrhosa up to thirty times before being covered with a particular, presumably, iron-rich, mud and left in the sun.

Food-wise, I'm quite keen on yams, particularly the beautifully sticky Nigerian Fufu, but I was told that this one, like the Australian Cheeky Yam that the Aboriginals macerate and soak before eating, is toxic, unless treated. Has anyone here had the culinary pleasure of the Cheeky Yam?

Looking forward to seeing those jeans unearthed

[Guest devil.beside.you]

crazy!! I was looking for something to do with my ironhearts that don't fit anymore, and I was thinking of tea staining or dying my jeans

Paging ringring!! any ideas here? you mentioned earlier in this thread about someone using tea..

[ringring]

Tea would work. It has the same tannins that are in the dye yams mentioned above. Combine that with some iron-rich earth or DrAlfonso's iron-brew-vinegar and you may be able to get a blackish overdye.

I guess it depends on what you can get your hands on. I think the pickled walnuts could work Or if you're raiding the food cupboard, try Tumeric.

How about berries or grapes? Crushed and left in water a few days. You'd need to add alum (try baking powder) and then stick your jeans in for a long soak.

Are you near the coast? Perhaps you could try contact dyeing with lichens? As previously discussed here : http://www.superfuture.com/supertalk/showthread.php?t=143701&page=4

Or staying on the seaside, maybe try whelk dyes? Probably more suited to a smaller item, like a bandana, it's an experiment I'd like to have a go at myself.

A while back, I was enjoying a seafood dinner in Barcelona and was tucking into some Goose Barnacles. Quite strange looking, though delicious, beasts, that were a bright red-purple which prompted speculation to my Catalan host if they could be used as a dyestuff. Instead he mentioned you could get a colourfast purple dye from the veins of whelks, which we'd scoffed a couple of minutes earlier.

I'm pretty sure there's many species of mollusc that will supply purple dye. How's that for a suggestion?

.

[Guest devil.beside.you]

The berries has defenitely intrigued me...I think I will take that experiment as a challenge. Any idea how much I will need in terms of quantities? Is it that simple? Crush the berries in water for a period of time, and then soak the jeans in them? And what color could i expect out of the berries?

[YoungPunch]

subscribed to this thread.

Just want to say great job Dr. Alfonso, and also ringring's knowledge is awe-inspiring.

[Opie]

Can someone point me to ringrings proverbial cock so i can suck it, please? +rep for mentioning HCA too!

[ringring]

The berries has defenitely intrigued me...I think I will take that experiment as a challenge. Any idea how much I will need in terms of quantities? Is it that simple? Crush the berries in water for a period of time, and then soak the jeans in them? And what color could i expect out of the berries?

The colours should range from purple-red to blue-grey, as you might expect from berries. I think the intensity of the colour depends on the amount of berries used.

It should be pretty simple. You'll need some alum as a mordant (helps the dye fix to your fabric). For the actual process, there's a lot better information on the net than I could ever give you.

Try this one : http://www.tahlia.org/blogger/postpics/dye/blackberrydye.htm

If you could post your results, I'd be fascinated and grateful.

YoungPunch & Opie - thanks a lot.

.

[Akira]

Someone should do a homemade persimmon dying and post a how-to/pictures/results.

[ringring]

Someone should do a homemade persimmon dying and post a how-to/pictures/results.

That would be interesting. It should be possible to do a home-dye job by rubbing your jeans into a mash of unripe persimmons. The unripe fruit has a high tannin content, which seems to be the theme running through this discussion.

Like the Chinese dye-yams, there seems to be an element of sun-drying involved to darken the fabric. Suntan

And, like the dye-yams, adding some iron to the mix will produce black. Another thing they have in common is the reputed rain-proofing qualities. Maybe a yam or persimmon dyed Ventile woven cotton, classic raglan sleeved Mac, would be the ultimate natural raincoat.

.

[dralfonzo]

UPDATE

I think I may have caused the outbreak of swine flu. I poked around in the tub today and was met with the smell I imagine must occur when you shit in a compost bin then leave it for 10 years to fester. I was literally gagging and was close to throwing in the towel, but i'm still curious to see what happens so i'm gonna let the jeans and tee dry, try giving them a hand wash and see what they're like. If they smell like they do now in a weeks time, i think i'll probably just set fire to them or something. Hopefully it'll be ok when they air out. I'm not sure if it was the vinegar, or the compost thats responsible but they really just smell like the inside of an ass.

I think some of the dyeing is a bit uneven, just how they were sitting in the tub probably. anyway....

\/ \/ i think this is the swine flu queen-germ chilling out on the back belt loop. it was moving around.

LOOK AT WHAT WAS UNDER THE TUB WHEN I MOVED IT. WHAT THE SHIT! im not touching that. i dont even know what the fuck it is. ringxring will know.

[aho]

lol that is pretty fucking raunchy but great work, looking forward to the results!

[Our_Benefactors]

Uh ew what was that undder the bucket

[nixon]

That would be interesting. It should be possible to do a home-dye job by rubbing your jeans into a mash of unripe persimmons. The unripe fruit has a high tannin content, which seems to be the theme running through this discussion.

Like the Chinese dye-yams, there seems to be an element of sun-drying involved to darken the fabric. Suntan

And, like the dye-yams, adding some iron to the mix will produce black. Another thing they have in common is the reputed rain-proofing qualities. Maybe a yam or persimmon dyed Ventile woven cotton, classic raglan sleeved Mac, would be the ultimate natural raincoat.

.

Hmmm, so you just mash the persimmons and jeans together in a bucket and sun dry after? How long do you need to leave the garment in the mash for?

I'll probably do this, along with walnut dying, sometime early fall. I couldn't find an exact date for the availability of persimmons, but I'm assuming it's around mid-fall?

[Leonard Leroy]

my god, don't even hand wash, just throw it in a machine, holay shet.

[chambo2008]

lmao yeah if it smells as bad as you say it does i wouldn't even wanna touch it with gloves on... good luck my friend

[Christmas In A Submarine.]

the stuff under the bucket looks a bit like rust to me. maybe there was a tiny hole in the bottom where rusty debris condensed and dripped out?

[cman]

i saw this thread on page 1 and got excited. hurry up and post the finished jeans, i've got hella blueballs.