Oogst – Orlean Seed (Annato)

Description

Orlean seed (Bixa orellana) Annatto or achiote(E)
Family: Bixaceae
Paint: with potash yellow tones and with alum: orange
Petit complexion
Stain dye

The Anatto tree is a small tropical tree native to Mexico, Central America and Southeast Asia. The fruits of this tree contain seeds from which the red-yellow dye bixin is extracted. This allows fibers to be dyed from gold to orange.

Facts
Orlean seed…
… The Anatto tree is also called lipstick tree.
… Is also suitable for coloring foodstuffs and cosmetics.

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 orange

Necessities:

- 100 grams of orlean seeds
– 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.

Tip: Soak orlean seeds in a jar of water for 2-3 days.

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
After 2-3 days of soaking, pour the decoction of orlean seeds through a wash bag (or cheesecloth) into the paint pan and top it up with 3-5 litres of water. You can hang your wash bag with orlean seeds in the dye pan.
Bring the dye bath to 90 degrees and simmer for an hour.
Lower the temperature to 30 degrees (Tip to speed up this process: put your pan in the sink with cold water) and add the wool, silk or cotton.
You can leave the orleans in the wash bag in the dye bath during dyeing. Just make sure the fibres can 'swim' well. Bring the temperature back up to 90 degrees and simmer for an hour.
Let the fibers cool slowly in the dye bath.

MC tip:
After cooling, leave the fibres in the dye bath for an extra 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.