The heavenly pink dye that avocado seeds and peels bear, can dye anything cotton, wood or silk. This time, I attempted to paint a cotton rope I wanted to use in one of my constructions.
I had tried to paint a white string a few months ago, but it didn’t very well. It seems that the rope I had wasn’t 100% cotton. This time, I searched and found a Greek craftsmanship that produces 100% cotton and linen ropes and yarns. The difference was noticeable, since the rope absorbed the avocado pink dye in no time.
If you’re new on A Shiny Day, you may want to read this article to find out how to get a ravishing natural pink dye from avocado seeds and peels.
To dye the cotton rope, you will need :
- 7 avocado seeds (yes, I eat a lot of avocados)
- A pot full of water
- A cloth pouch (or kitchen towel)
- Cotton rope
- A lemon or a knife for weight
- A wooden spoon that I ONLY use when painting with plants
- A glass jar
- A strainer
Instructions :
- Put the pot on medium heat (e.g. my stove goes up to 9 and I turned the heat to 5)
- Throw in the avocado seeds
- Let them simmer for 3 hours. When the water diminishes, add more. I added hot water, but lukewarm is fine too.
- Once the dye has a fairly intense color, you’re ready to use it!
- Add a cloth towel in a glass jar. I used a cotton pouch I have for this purpose. Keep in mind that the towel you will use to strain the dye from the remains of the seeds, will also be dyed pink.
- Put a strainer above the towel or the pouch, for the largest pieces of seed.
- Strain the water to a clean dye.
- Transfer the seeds from the strainer to a plate, and rinse the towel/ pouch. Keep the strained seeds to use in your next construction. Leave them in the sun to dry.
- The dye is ready in the jar! Add the cotton rope.
- Most likely, the rope will float. You can weigh it down using a fruit, a knife or any object.
- I left the rope in the dye for about 4 hours, for a bright pink effect. You can leave it as long as you want depending on how dark you want the final result to be. Always assume that the color you see when the material is wet is always darker than when it dries.
- Once you remove the rope from the paint, let it dry for a day. After that, the rope will be ready to incorporate in any construction!
I created a lovely flower potusing the pink rope!
So, what do you think? Will you try it?
