"Living things are unpredictable."

Thanks for the engaged comments on yesterday's post about the natural plant dyes class I took, friends!
I want to respond to a couple points, since I'm entirely new to this and enjoying the learning.

I'd never dyed with plants before.
I was amazed how variable dyes are, depending on how they're prepared... plus other variables, like the mineral content of your water, what pot you dye in; what fabric you dye, etc.

As the teacher, Theresa, said, "Living things are unpredictable."
No kidding.

River commented she'd thought hollyhock would dye pink, not blue-grey. I was surprised, too, that the color of the plant itself does not determine the color of its dye. (Though the hollyhock was a purple black, so losing the red isn't too unlikely.)

GZ replied that the color can be changed or intensified with different mordants (fixatives, such as alum) and/or different modifiers (e.g. mineral waters colored by soaking iron, copper soaked in it).

We saw that in class.

 Die, Invasive Species, Dye!

Here's buckthorn--an invasive species everyone hates because it's hell to remove, and it keeps coming back (Minnesota DNR page on managing buckthorn).
But it's a great dye plant.

Below:  For this dye batch, buckthorn bark was simmered in hot water, like tea, making a foxy-color (bottom left).
Then iron water was added to some of the stuff, like what Penny Cooper is holding, bringing out the gold:

Below: Also buckthorn––but the bark was soaked in 50/50 ammonia and water. (No heat.)
Same plant, but it dyes pink!

Theresa is a retired chemistry teacher. She teaches classes on dyeing with local invasive species. She encourages it because everyone wants to kill these plants--they are the opposite of endangered.

She sells Invasive Colors yarn too, at markets in Duluth. 
"It's amazing what you can get from nasty plants," she says.

Salvaging vs Foraging

Lichen is the opposite of invasive--it is very fragile.
Joanne was concerned that the teacher used lichen dye, even with lichen taken from dead trees. She commented :

"Left on the fallen tree, the lichen would have aided its decomposition. In my estimation, lichen is too fragile to be harvested, ever. I used to spin wool, dye it and sell it, and I never took lichen. It takes too, too, too many years to grow.
Some colors are not worth the cost."

Yes!
This is important, so I want to clarify what Theresa told us.
She lives in the area of the Duluth Folk School and has contacts to alert her to salvage projects for endangered plants.

When road crews are coming through forest, cutting down trees or breaking up rock, and and hauling it all away, she goes in and salvages lichen that would not be left in a natural environment.
That's different than foraging for plants in the wild.

Theresa said many dyers will not work with lichen, even salvaged, because it alerts other people to its wonderfulness who then might forage lichen from the wild.

So, using lichen is something of an ethical quandary.
Does it encourage people to be more aware and appreciative of lichen, and thus to be more likely to protect it and its environment?

That's the effect it has on me.
I was deeply grateful to get to work with this crazy life form.

Or, does it give license to people who don't give a hoot?
Yeah, I can see how that could happen too.

Working with living beings... We are unpredictable.
Gotta weigh the probabilities and the costs, and make your choice.