… making fabric containers for my favourite things .

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I have chosen to make containers for the three small pomegranates.These dried pomegranates were collected in a beautiful , old ,derelict, Jewish house in Kashan , Iran .

The Pomegranate is called the Heavenly Fruit in Iran میوه بهشت or the King of Fruits شاه میوه .It is used in cuisine , juices , healing purposes and for dyeing wool and silk …. and of course it is eaten in abundance especially on the Yule Tide Festival ‘Yalda’ which is the Winter Solstice … the longest night.

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I dried pomegranate skins and ground them to a coarse powder. I made a dye bath by adding cider vinegar and the powder bringing it to the boil stirring the solution well. I added pieces of cotton muslin , wool fabric and silk thread . I let them simmer for over two hours . It never ceases to amaze me how natural ingredients never cause blotches or spots on the fabric and how the residue just washes away leaving in this case a gorgeous earthy pink on the wool and yellow/ browns on the cotton and silk .

Pomegranate skins and alum mordant are used to dye yarns in a variety of yellows for carpets , kilims and handicrafts. The colour achieved will depend on the quality of the fruit and the combination of mordants used . Vinegar acts as a mordant and a Ph modifier helping the fibers to absorb the dye . A weak vinegar solution also helps to stop some fibers like wool and silk from degrading . If no mordant is used the colours are more earthy browns than yellows and pinks .