Battle of the Iron and Copper


Following my experiments last week, I decided to dive deeper. The battle between copper vs iron! Cutting 9 thin strips, I prepared silk, cotton, and wool to be tested. One of each fabric went into iron, one of each into copper solution and the last piece of each fabric was not soaked in any solution. All fabrics were washed and scoured to remove any chemical finish that may prevent staining. 

I soaked the fabrics in solution for 25 minutes and then once mordanted I began the same process as before, scattering softer leaves, onion skin, coffee and tea this time. I rolled the 9 fabric strips up, hung them with string round a wooden spoon and steamed them in W pot with a little water, on a hob. (Ensuring the fabric wasn’t in the water, but just above it).


The final results are in! 


The copper is definitely the winner for me. It stains the fabric less and really brought out the green and reds beautifully. There’s also less indistinct smearing going on but more defined shapes. 

The inky smears on the iron is very interesting because every colour was taking as blue/black. I rinsed all samples and none of them really faded much which was also a surprise. 

As for the untreated/not mordanted samples, I was impressed they took at all especially the onion skin red pigment onto the silk. 

So overall my favourite sample is the copper silk. This will be something I use for my final samples. 

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