We get mordant questions all the time at Botanical Colors so why not create Mordant Monday??? Got mordanting questions? Email [email protected]
YOU ASKED: I used your cold water Aluminum Triformate mordant. I dissolved it in cold water and poured it into the cold water tub. It was really cloudy when I added the fabric. Now the mordant has settled on the bottom of the pot. Is that right? If not, is there a way to rectify it.
KATHY ANSWERED: If there are a few grains of mordant at the bottom, it’s not a problem. If there’s a layer of mordant, then I would remove the fabric and stir it well to see if it further dissolves. Sometimes if your water has a lot of total dissolved solids like calcium and other minerals, the alum attracts the minerals and they sink to the bottom of the mordant tub. It is probably still just fine, so don’t worry about it too much. Just make sure you rinse the fabric well before proceeding to dyeing so that any stray sediment is not remaining on the fabric.
YOU ASKED: I mordanted cotton with alum to eco dye. Not a success so I want to wrap with more leaves and try again. Do I do the mordant process again.
KATHY ANSWERED: Technically you do not need to re-mordant. However, since I don’t know what the problem was with your results, it won’t hurt to re-mordant and try again. You may also want to consider leaving the bundle wrapped longer to give the dyes more time to penetrate and bond with the fabric and really develop. I’ve done this with alum-mordanted fibers but not with iron-mordanted fibers, so be aware that iron may react differently to long bundle times.
YOU ASKED: If I am using aluminum triformate as my mordant, do I still need to use the wheat bran fixative? The instructions for the aluminum triformate did not suggest so. Thank you for your time!!
KATHY ANSWERED: Both the calcium carbonate or the wheat bran post treatments are specific to aluminum acetate. You do not need to use it with aluminum triformate but we recommend that you rinse aluminum triformate prior to dyeing the fibers.
YOU ASKED: I could not find wheat bran so I bought wheat germ. Will this work as a fixative?
KATHY ANSWERED: I don’t really know but it may have similar properties since it’s from the same kernel.