We dye most of our wool outside, in old, wood-fired water heaters, which you find in traditional Finnish saunas.
They are called "Pata.” We have a very old 120 litre one made of brick and cast iron, and this of course, adds a little iron to the mix.
The others have an 80-litre stainless steel pot. They are most effective for dyeing; once the target temperature is reached,
it is a simple matter to close everything down and leave them to "soak."
Being brick lined, they are very well insulated, and the firebrick holds the heat. The cast iron one keeps the heat too well!!
We dye loose fibre from raw fleece, which is then carded into batts for felting. The fleece is first picked over by hand and then washed
just before going into the dyepot. This reduces the number of "thermal shocks" the wool has to go through which helps to prevent felting of the fibres.
Once the wool is wet, we try to keep it at a constant temperature. As a rule, we do not mordant the wool prior to immersion in the vat.
(For the same reasons...)
The mordant is added to the vat after the wool, when the temperature is up to 60C. Agitation is kept to an absolute minimum and the wool is
always left to cool in the vat overnight. When the vat has cooled (40/50C), we remove the wool to a rinsing bath at a similar temperature
and bring it down to room temperature there. The wool is then spun in a centrifuge to remove excess water and dried on racks in our sauna
or outside if the weather allows.
This ensures a loose and un-felted fleece with minimal losses in the carding process.
We do not normally use any other mordants except Alum or Copper, and the most "toxic" process involves Indigo or Woad.
We have tried a traditional method using urine but the smell was really disturbing. I suppose we could do it by special request.
Any use of Copper, Iron or Tin in the dyeing process will be very clearly stated.
As the wool is to be carded into batts, we dye a minimum of 1kg at a time.
(Allowance for grease and dirt must be made in the initial calculation of the amounts of wool, mordant, and dyestuff.)
This means we will always have enough wool of a similar colour to card and a decent amount to use in our carpets and wall hangings.
We are not very scientific and rely on Karoliina’s experience and my experimental nature to get by.
All colours we are not happy with are sent to the indigo vat for over-dyeing. This is where the real magic happens,
transforming dull or uninteresting colours into the brightest hues of green and turquoise.
This year we have started dyeing using processed (dried, ground or powdered.) natural dyestuff from reputable sources.
i.e. Madder, Cochineal etc. This should expand our palette more into the orange and red colours we love so much.
(Mushrooms having been our only source of red until now.) This also allows dyeing to carry on throughout the winter months.
We have also started dyeing wool using Dystar synthetic reactive dyes. At the moment, this is for our own use
(or possibly personal callers.) but may develop into a colour palette that will be available sometime next year.
Uncarded dyed locks also available, both plant and reactive dyed.