Oogst – Chamomile

Description

Yellow chamomile (Anthemis tinctoria) Yellow chamomile, (E)
Family: Compositae
Paint: bright yellow-olive green

From southern Europe, various types of chamomile, including yellow chamomile, have found their way into all countries of Europe over the centuries.
The yellow flower heads are used to extract quercetin. With this ingredient you get bright yellow to olive green colors.
Yellow chamomile is also called paint chamomile, which you can see from the suffix tinctoria which means 'used as a dye'.
You can also grow the plants yourself in a sunny, dry and stony spot. When they are in full bloom in the summer, you can harvest them and let them dry.

The yellow chamomile…

• … is a strong butterfly attractor
• … smells less strong than regular chamomile
• ... is also called a plant doctor because he seems to make all the plants in his environment better
• … is a hardy plant
• … is related to the wild chamomile (Matricaria recutita), with which you can also dye

This is one of the natural dye products described in the book Eco-dye by Anja Schrik.

Recipe

Basic recipe for 100 grams of wool, silk or cotton to dye yellow

Necessities:

- 100 grams of yellow camomile
– 15 grams of alum
– 2 grams of tartaric acid
– electric stove or stove
– 2 old (cast iron) pans
– apron, gloves
– laundry bag or cheesecloth
– (glass) jars, buckets or trays
– 1 cup vinegar
– 2 cups of household soda (if you are going to dye cotton)

Step 1: Wash (only if you are going to dye cotton, skip step 1 if you are going to dye wool or silk)
Fill a bucket with plenty of water and 2 cups of household soda and leave your cotton in it for 24 hours. Rinse well the next day.

Step 2: pickling
Dissolve the alum and tartaric acid in a jar of hot water. Put 3-5 liters of water in the (pickling) pan and add the mixture of alum and tartaric acid. Soak the wool, silk or cotton in a bucket of water and add them to the pickling pan when they are completely soaked. Bring the temperature to 80 degrees (not warmer). Let it simmer for over an hour. Then let the fibers cool down slowly in the pickling bath. You can leave this overnight or get started right away.

Step 3: Dyeing
Put the chamomile in a wash bag and place it in your paint pan with 3-5 litres of water.
Bring the dye bath to boiling point and simmer for an hour.
Lower the temperature to 30 degrees and add the wool, silk or cotton. (Tip to speed up this process: put your pan in the sink with cold water).
You can leave the chamomile in the wash bag in the dye bath during dyeing. Make sure the fibres can 'swim' well. Bring the temperature to 80 degrees and simmer for an hour.
Let the dye bath cool slowly.
MC Tips:
1) For better results, soak the chamomile in water for 24-48 hours before starting step 3. Then pour the decoction through a wash bag into the paint pan and top up with enough water.
2) After cooling, leave the fibres in the dye bath for an additional night.

Step 4: Fix
Rinse the fibers and let it sit in a bucket of water with 1 cup of vinegar for an hour. Then rinse well and hang to dry.