Friday, February 12, 2010

Natural Tie Dye


Yesterday the girls and I took an impromptu trip to Strawberry Plains out in Holly Springs, MS. We had a really great time watching all the different species of birds that feed there, touring the huge great house, crunching snow beneath our feet (we didn't get any snow in Oxford) and attempting to identify animal tracks left in the snow. While tracking the prints of one animal or another the girls found themselves beneath a huge black walnut tree. We gathered some empty shells and some hulls (?) to bring home to make dye. We boiled the hulls for several minutes in some salted water. The concoction looked a lot like black coffee and smelled like strong tea.



We used some pieces from old t-shirts that we had. I think they turned out pretty good. Next time, maybe we will use some red onion skins (to make purple), yellow onion skins (to make yellow) and some beets too (to make red) for multicolored fabric.


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