BPO: Mixing Mordants

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Mixing Mordants Creating more depth and crisp prints by mixing different mordants After doing samples with single mordants, we learned what the difference in colour is and why. Alum, giving bright shades of yellow and green on fresh leaves when it combines in the fabric with the flavonoids and chlorophyll in the leaves. Ferrous sulfate giving dark reactions with the tannins in the leaves. It also gives a distinct buff shade to the fabric. Copper sulfate giving a lot of golden and brown tones in combination with the tannins from the leaves. Now while it is great to know the basics of this, in botanical printing it can also make the print a bit 'flat' and one-dimensional. This is where we get to work with mixed mordants so we can combine the best of all worlds. Some alchemy. When making mixed mordants, the order of putting the ingredients is critical. We first dissolve the alum and only then add the ferrous sulfate or the copper sulfate, this keeps the ferrous sulfate from oxidizing and keeps the mordant much more colorless than when we do it the other way around. Because we are , in a way, double mordanting the fabric, we are not simply adding one mordant to another, instead we have slightly different proportions. We will combine the yellows and greens coming from alum combining together with the flavonoids and chlorophyll AND the ferrous sulfate or the copper sulfate reacting with the tannins in the leaves. This gets especially nice when different types of leaves are used and even slightly overlap, with each leaf presenting different reaction because the percentage of tannins and flavonoids and chlorophylls varies so much. Order of mordants matters. Here I will demonstrate the difference between using ferrous sulfate first, or using an alum based mordant first. This is the secret to keeping a white background! If you dissolve ferrous sulfate first you will always have a buff background, this does not happen when we first dissolve alum based mordant, and then add the ferrous sulfate The Recipes Note; all these recipes are with 1% WOF Ferrous Sulfate, but if you like darker prints, experiment with 1.5% and 2% and choose what you like best! Mixed mordant no1: alum-ferrous sulfate for silk Dissolve 10%WOF alum in hot water. Stir until fully dissolved. Add 1% WOF Ferrous Sulfate and stir immediately. Top up with cold water enough to cover your fabrics. Work pre-wetted silk in the solution for five minutes and soak for two hours.