Have logwood - will dye

[Capn_Enigma]

I discovered a source for logwood. I purchased 200 grams of it, which should suffice for my purposes.

I want to dye a small amount (think of half a can of coke) of water blue with it, NOT any fabrics. So, does anybody know how to extract the blue dye? I guess just cooking the wood chips isn't enough, is it?

Same question, for cochineal: How are the dead bugs to be treated to release their red color? I hear that they are ground, but is that all?

[Capt. Sterling]

For the Cochineal, isn't it something like 70,000 to 155,000 female bugs, boil to kill, then lay them out to dry and then crush them into the powder?

[Gentleman of Fortune]

Everything you need to know about logwood dying... if you didn't find it already.

http://www.aurorasilk.com/info/logwood.shtml

Let me know how it turns out.

gof

[Capn_Enigma]

Thank you both!

Meanwhiles, I have found out how to extract the pigment from cochineal: I crushed 5 grams of the dried bugs in a mortar, and soaked them in 300 ml of water over night. Then I boiled up the solution for a quarter of an hour and filtered it (through coffee filter paper). This gave me an extract that is very rich in color, which gave a rich wine red color even when heavily diluted with water (1:4)

I used the cochineal extract to fill a weather glass like this in an authentic way:

I am still looking for a way to dye water blue. When I try the same approach (soaking, boiling) with logwood flakes, the water only becomes reddish/ brownish. Any ideas?

N.B.: Indigo will not do, as it is only very badly soluble in water and would stain the glass.

[Matty Bottles]

I understand that the PH level of the water (and mordant, if dying fabrics and such) helps determine color. However, that is the extent of my knowledge.

[Gentleman of Fortune]

Precisely

Now add "alum" to the logwood to get the color.

Logwood is an "indicator" color, one that changes with the pH of the solution. Thus adding either acid or alkali to the dyebath can modify the hue obtained. Too much acid will actually cause the dye to "disappear". Just enough will give redder tones, while alkalis like chalk or bases like ammonia will turn the tone more blue.

Because the iron-Logwood combination has such a pronouncedly blue tone, iron-Logwood can be used to turn yellows and golds into lovely soft greens. Compounding mordants by adding tin or alum in with the iron gives very fashionable lavender grays.

GoF

[Gentleman of Fortune]

Enigma

Care to share what exactly your project/purpose is?

GoF

[Capn_Enigma]

It is the same as I wrote above in connection with cochineal: To fill a weather glass with "properly" dyed water.

I obtained alum today, tried it and it looks promising: Mixed with extract of logwood, it gives a purplish color, not unlike the water from boiled red cabbage. When diluted, it becomes a light purple. I'll have to find out whether it is a light- fast color, though. Of cochineal, I already know that it is, so no problem there.

BTW: While digging around the net for instances of logwood, I came upon the following sentence:

"The use of logwood was prohibited by law in England from 1581-1662"

which, if true, might be of interest to other reenactors. Anyone confirm this?

[Matty Bottles]

I seem to remember that logwood existed entirely in Spanish provinces at the time, and it was an effort to either mollify the Spanish that the English weren't going to tolerate 'illegal' excursions to the Spanish Main (when they really did) or it was a sincere effort to prevent people from trading for goods that originated from Spanish colonies. I can't remember which.

[Capn_Enigma]

Success!

This was the result after I soaked the logwood chips in distilled water over the night, let them boil for half an hour and added a minute quantity of alum solution to the filtered extract:

This is already a diluted solution, as the basic extract is an extremely dark blue- purple color and almost impossible to photograph.

Thanks to all involved, especially to GoF!

Now i will see if this is light- fast and then I will fill my weather glass with it.

"Perhaps today is a good day to dye!" (Lt. Cmdr Worf)

[LocktownDog]

Well done! Great project.

Richard

[Capn_Enigma]

Thankee!

And here is the final result. The color is more purple than blue, but it only looks more dapper that way, don't you find?