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Celebrate the Creative! Marigold dyeing with Children

I found a bag of marigolds on my front porch the other day, a gift from a friend, knowing I would use them to dye silk and wool.  So very gratefully I started the process, wanting to involve my grandchildren in it all.

My dye pot is never far away, so we filled it up with water and brought it to boiling, put the marigolds in and right away put it on simmer for over an hour.

 While it was simmering I put silk in a bowl of water mixed in with alum and cream of tartar... this is the mordant that helps the silk absorb more color.  

We put the dye pot on my deck to let it cool, and later my grandson took all the marigolds out of the pot with a small strainer.  there will always be extra petals which stay in the pot just for fun.  

We put the silk in the dye pot and he stirred it for a while, then we left it alone for a day and an overnight and then some.  Oh yes, we also added a little bit of curly wool to the dye for puppet hair.

We rinsed and rinsed and rinsed, then hung it up on the line to dry.  We do wear rubber gloves for this part.

Look at the glorious golden colors from that wonderful bag of marigold flowers I was given!  

I watched the wonder of this simple magical transformation process in my grandson's eyes and enthusiasm.  Now we have to decide what we will make!!!