Experimenting With Cochineal
Yesterday I spent several hours with Kristen as we gathered the materials necessary to make our bug dye and later tried out the first part of our experiment. We will need to have at least one more dyeing session, but the good thing is that we learned a lot yesterday. We went out and bought some un-dyed yarn at Fiber Factory and some lime juice, and while we were out and about we got a little side-tracked and invested in pedometers and had a delicious lunch at Pita Jungle.
When we finally got back to her place, we salvaged what we could of the bugs she had already collected, and ended up deciding that we needed to harvest a new batch. The old ones had gotten blown onto the grass by the landscaping people and by the adorable pug puppy they are temporarily watching. So we had to harvest some new bugs, but that wasn’t a problem considering that their prickly pear cactus is covered in the cochineal bugs. We also started a fire on the grill and set some water to boil.
We were worried about how we would separate the bugs from the white web that surrounds them, but once we added them to the boiling water we found that the web material floated to the surface and the bugs separated from it. The water quickly began to turn a reddish, slightly purplish color—very cool! We were worried that because we hadn’t been able to obtain oxalic acid that the dyeing wouldn’t work, so we had also purchased some blue dye to add to the water, thinking that as a commercial dye it would have whatever chemicals we were lacking for the mordant process. What ended up happening was that although we added very little of the blue dye, it took over the color of the water. Kristen managed to get some more of the red to show up by crushing any bugs trapped in the web material, and the water turned a deep, dark purple—but it was still very blue. Since we didn’t want to waste our yarn on blue dye, Kristen offered a white pillowcase that she never used, and we threw that into the pot of water. Now we know that in order to release more of the red color, we need to crush the bugs before putting them in the water. As for the oxalic acid, I wonder if we really need it. Just in case I have looked up possible sources of oxalic acid in common plants and foods.
I look forward to our continued experimentation with cochineal—next time we will not add any of the blue dye. And if worse comes to worse and we can’t figure it out, Fiber Factory has a class in April!
When we finally got back to her place, we salvaged what we could of the bugs she had already collected, and ended up deciding that we needed to harvest a new batch. The old ones had gotten blown onto the grass by the landscaping people and by the adorable pug puppy they are temporarily watching. So we had to harvest some new bugs, but that wasn’t a problem considering that their prickly pear cactus is covered in the cochineal bugs. We also started a fire on the grill and set some water to boil.
We were worried about how we would separate the bugs from the white web that surrounds them, but once we added them to the boiling water we found that the web material floated to the surface and the bugs separated from it. The water quickly began to turn a reddish, slightly purplish color—very cool! We were worried that because we hadn’t been able to obtain oxalic acid that the dyeing wouldn’t work, so we had also purchased some blue dye to add to the water, thinking that as a commercial dye it would have whatever chemicals we were lacking for the mordant process. What ended up happening was that although we added very little of the blue dye, it took over the color of the water. Kristen managed to get some more of the red to show up by crushing any bugs trapped in the web material, and the water turned a deep, dark purple—but it was still very blue. Since we didn’t want to waste our yarn on blue dye, Kristen offered a white pillowcase that she never used, and we threw that into the pot of water. Now we know that in order to release more of the red color, we need to crush the bugs before putting them in the water. As for the oxalic acid, I wonder if we really need it. Just in case I have looked up possible sources of oxalic acid in common plants and foods.
I look forward to our continued experimentation with cochineal—next time we will not add any of the blue dye. And if worse comes to worse and we can’t figure it out, Fiber Factory has a class in April!
posted by Ana at 22:10
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