In September and October, we've been studying fruits and nuts for nature study. One of the things we did while studying them was making dye from walnuts. It was actually a really fun project! (We've been using a unit study from Shining Dawn Books. **pictured above**) Here's what we did to make it:
We started with a handful of black walnut shells... (thank you, Gina!)
Then the boys took turns taking whacks at them till they were pretty smashed...then we had to put the shells in an old nylon and let it soak in a pot of water for three days. After the three days were up, we had to boil it for about an hour, then leave it overnight again...(yes, this was a time-consuming project :)
After all that, we soaked some pieces of fabric in the dye for several hours....
Here's how it turned out....nuts, isn't it!! :)
4 comments:
Last night at our spinning class, Kelly showed us all her "natural" dyes that she uses to dye her yarn. She uses black walnuts but she also uses marigolds, onion skins, and some strange bug they find on cactus. The bug dye was a beautiful red. Her yarns are so cool.
Love it! So glad you're enjoying the fruit and nut study!! :o) Thanks for adding this to the CM Carnival, too! (And what a handsome family you are!)
Looks like a fun learning experience! :)
That's great! I bet the nut-smashing was fun for your son!
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