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RECEIPT TO COLOR BLUE.
To color 5 pounds of linnen yarn or 7 of wool, put 2 pails
full of chamber-lye in a wooden tub--then dissolve 4 ounces of pot ash in one
quart of hot water, put it in the tub and let it stand 6 days--then pour off
the top till you come to the settlings--throw them out--put the liquor into
the tub again--then put 4 ounces of good indigo and 2 ounces of madder in a
bag--put it into the dye and rub it well 5 times in 12 hours--then put your
yarn under the dye 6 hours--take it out--if not dark to your mind, put in again.
When the dye grows weak, add more dye stuff.
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(c) Pocumtuck Valley Memorial Association, Deerfield MA. All rights reserved.
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There is currently no available "Beginner" label. The following is the default level label: Before there were commercially available dyes, people who sought to dye cloth resorted to elaborate recipes to create dyes at home. Here, two different highly alkaline chemicals, lye (potassium hydroxide) and pot ash (potassium carbonate) were combined with two dyes, indigo and madder. Lye was derived by leaching wood ashes to create a liquid; pot ash by leaching the ashes of vegetables to create a white powder. Both were extremely caustic and were used as detergents. The form of lye specified here, chamber-lye, was created by adding lye to urine, a natural form of ammonia. They are used here to create a liquid that penetrated the fabric's threads and bonded the dye to them. Added to that mix was indigo, a blue dye derived from the plant of the same name; indigo was the original dye of "blue jeans." Finally, madder was added. Madder comes from the root of the plant Rubica tinctorum, which produces reddish to blueish dyes.
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"Receipt To Color Blue"
creator Unidentified |
date c. 1850 |
location Unknown |
width 7.5" |
height 2.75" |
process/materials printed paper, ink |
item type Legal Documents/Receipt |
accession # #L01.097 |
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