ORANGE! These exclamation point-worthy hot tickets are local maple dyed with weld and madder! Weld's brightness underlies a quick trip through red madder on a day I was experimenting with epsom salts as a color shifter. What an orange! What I love about natural dyes, especially on wood, is that colors that would be so loud and plasticky when made with synthetic materials appear in the botanicals as totally in tune with the natural world. These are constructed in a post-and-backing design made of irritation-proof titanium. Sterling silver connectors. These tangerine punctuators have a lot to say, and they have just the best attitude. Let them change your mind about who "can" and "can't" wear orange.
Dimensions: .75" wide by 2.5" long
Petroleum free (except for a tiny dab of superglue)
Tangerine Post Drops
Weld is native to Central Asia and Europe, where it has been used as a lightfast yellow dye since ancient times. It plays well with others and serves as a terrific, bright, clear base for overdyeing with other colors to produce wild oranges and greens! Non-invasive and safe to grow - which I hope to do next season!
Madder root was the primary European source for reds. Martin Luther (the religious reformer) grew madder plants in his dye garden. Achieving what we know as a "true red" with natural dyes is surprisingly difficult, and there are fantastic medieval recipes that call for lots of foul ingredients. As it turns out, many of those ingredients were pH-shifters. Madder's complex of dye molecules are also reactive to temperatures, alkalinity, and minerals. Hard to control, but fun to play with, madder can produce a range of reds from tangerine to terra cotta to blood red to mauve-y and peachy pinks.
