Avocado Dye

Hello the end of July. It feels rather strange to have not updated the blog for a while. Things have been happening! Firstly, I got invited to be a resident artist at the Tampines Secondary School makerspace.  I will be conducting eight sessions on sewing, upcycling, manipulating fabric and basic surface design. The exciting thing about this residency is that 95% of the class is made up of boys, and because of this, I decided to select more exciting (read, energy expending sessions!) textile art techniques other than sewing.  So, we will be embarking on marbling with fabric, and hectograph / jelly plate making and fabric printing, which I think the kids will find fun.  Originally, felting was on the cards but unfortunately budget-wise it did not make sense especially since we would have to source for natural wool.

Avocado Natural Dye

And whilst this has been happening, I have been stewing a few avocado seeds at home.  I have found the best concoction is to let the seeds soak overnight at an alkaline pH. By the end of the day, you should have a rich red tincture-like looking syrup. I popped my cotton into the mixture and let that soak for another 24 hours. I had the mixture on gentle heat but there was no intense bubbling. By the end of the long soak, I had a nicely coloured grocery bag (from Simple Cotton by Puffy) and samples of cotton fabric (YouLiving and Coopita). I'm definitely interested to see how this experiment will progress.

Materials - 3 avocado seeds peeled and halved, baking soda
Pretreated cotton
48 hours process