Passive Solar Dyeing
The weather this week has been very
unusual for the Midwest. It's barely gone below 90° F at night, and,
with humidity, the highs have been greater than 101° F (32° C and 38° C, respectively). I decided to
capture some of this free energy by dyeing linen thread using passive
solar heat. Like a slightly toxic, colorful version of sun tea, if
you will.
 |
| The dark blue enamel makes it hard to tell that the dye is wine red. |
The setup is very simple. You just need
direct sunlight, a dye container, and a clear or dark colored cover.
Anything you will never use for food in the future and don't mind
being stained will work as a dye pot, and a piece of glass, clear plastic, or even trash bags will work as the cover. I used my trusty
enameled dye pot and a clear bin I had lying around.
 |
| Capture the summer heat to dye yarn or fabric. |
I wound my linen thread into a skein
and loosely tied it with some blue warp scraps. Then I plopped the
skein in the premixed Rit dye and put the cover on top to concentrate
the sunlight and to keep mosquitoes and thirsty critters out. I left
the skein in the dye bath all day and overnight, moving it to keep it
in direct sunlight, and stirring every few hours.
Here's what it looked like after
rinsing.
Not a perfect coverage, but good enough
for the project I have in mind. Dyeing it outside definitely helped me
keep the inside of my house cool! Next time I'll pre-soak the skein,
tie it looser, and stir it more often and see if that helps get the
color more even.
Quite a successful experiment in saving
energy and making the killer heat useful!
