Hopi Black Dye Sunflower

Naturally dye your wool - with a sunflower! Oo this was a fun one! The Hopi raised a really cool sunflower called Tceqa' Qu' Si that can also be used as a natural dye - reds, purples, teals and blacks. It's called the Hopi Black Dye Sunflower in English, because blacks and grays are the colors that will stay with your basket, wool or other dyed material. Still, it's so fun to get those purples, even if they're a bit fugitive! They leave behind a beautiful gray with an alum mordant, or black with an iron mordant. The first ripe seedheads were saved for quality seed, and then we dried the rest of the seeds for dye! Naturally I couldn't wait long to try them out, so here's how the first experiment went! I used 150 ml of seeds and 1 quart of water, heated to 200*F (I used a fancy teapot because the seeds are perfectly edible, but a stovetop pan with a thermometer, or an oven preset to 200*F would work great too!) The water was heated before adding the seeds. It all stayed at about 200*F for a half hour. Meanwhile, I took 1 oz of Eowyn's wool and placed it in warm, soapy dishwater to soak for a little while. After a half hour at 200*F plus another half hour cooling (one hour total) I strained the seeds from the water and placed the water in a stainless steel pan. I then added 1 TBSP of alum and 3 TBSP vinegar to the dyebath. (Apple Cider Vinegar was used since we didn't have white vinegar on hand.) The acidity is apparently very important for the purple color. This mixture sat for 24, 48, and 72 hours, with a sample removed after each time period. Watch the video to see the results! Some links to other sites that I found particularly useful when planning this project: https://www.nativeseeds.org/pages/hopi-bla... http://inconsequentialblogger.blogspot.com.... https://www.annacarolynmeier.com/.../hopi-.... https://www.etsy.com/shop/TwoCabbageHeads has Hopi Black Dye Sunflower seeds for your garden next summer, or a complete dye kit so you can try this project right away!