Making Lake from a Leftover Dye Bath
Ingredients:
28 grams of aluminum sulfate
Sodium carbonate
Dye bath leftovers (e.g., from St. John’s wort, logwood)
Vinegar (if needed)
Funnel
Filter
Water
Equipment:
Mixing container
Stirrer
Steps:
Prepare Aluminum Hydroxide:
Dissolve 28 grams (example from the video) of aluminum sulfate in water.
Add sodium carbonate to the solution until it generates bubbles and becomes milky, forming aluminum hydroxide.
You may use the leftover of aluminum acetate mordant for this purpose
Recycling the Dye Bath:
Strain the dye leftovers well
Add the aluminum hydroxide to the leftover dye bath. For example, use the remaining solution from St. John's wort or logwood.
Stir the mixture well.
Let it sit for a while to allow the formation of the pigment (lake).
Filtering the Lake:
Use a funnel and filter to strain the mixture, collecting the pigment.
Rinse the pigment to remove any impurities.
Drying the Lake:
Let the filtered pigment dry completely. This can be stored for future use.
Creating the Dye from the Lake:
To use the lake pigment for dyeing, dissolve it in a suitable medium:
For acidic solutions, dissolve the lake in a mild acid like citric acid, you may use it for one-bath recipes for wool and silk
For basic solutions, dissolve the lake in an alkaline solution like caustic soda (sodium hydroxide).
Stir until the solution is transparent, indicating that the pigment has fully dissolved.
Notes:
This process allows for the recycling of dye baths by converting leftover dyes into usable pigments.
The aluminum hydroxide acts as a mordant that captures and fixes the dye molecules.
The resulting lake pigments can be stored and used for future dyeing projects.
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