Tea and Rust Dyeing Cloth, Paper and Threads - Part One

Love your running side commentary…..head butting……flutter my eye lashes……layering of paper looks like a fancy French buttered flakey pastry…..I love a blotch here and there…..slapdash my new favorite vocabulary word…I knew the looo….but not the toot…..as a 73 year old Happy Ager and a devoted life long learner……not sure I have to go anywhere else for informative updates….it’s ALL right here and more to come……teehee

I just love listening to you!!! Watching you create is a Bonus! It’s like we’re sitting right there with you, thank you for bring us along with you!

I never thought of tea dyeing coloured fabric. I don’t like really bright colours also, so I use bleach. I get awesome results. It’s soft bleach and I mix it with water, so it doesn’t damage the fabric. I have some black clothes that I didn’t like and I put them in bleach. They look great. I usually leave them some minutes if I want to have some shapes, you know, a bit like “stains” (?), I’m having trouble finding the right word in English. Let’s say that I put the cloth or the piece of clothing for some minutes all wrapped around. It comes out with amazing shapes. You can never predict or plan it. If I want it to be even, I let it stay more time. Usually the black gets the greatest shades of brown. If they stay longer, they’ll be whitish. I once did that to a red dress and loved it. I use vinegar with rust instead of black tea. Does it influence the colour? Not wanting to write much, but being unable to 😂, just to say that in Portugal if I went somewhere to ask for rusty things, they would think I was insane! When I say to people that I dye fabric with coffee, tea, rust, camellias and wild flowers, people look at me as if I were a lunatic! So the other day I found some abandoned garage place and looked for rusty things, whatever I could find, praying not to be seen by anyone who’d certainly think I was crazy 😂 💙🩷💛🧡♥️🩵💚🤍🤎💜

This is so cool!! Looking forward to part two to see how everything turns out. Thank for showing us how this process works😁🤗🤗

I will never dispose of old rusty treasures ever again! 🤣 thank you- lovely treatment and I'm looking forward to seeing the finished products ❤

So nice to see your videos. I’m on a journey learning from you and practicing seam ripping. Surprised at how I enjoy slow unstitching. 😊 Tea dying looks amazing. I started getting cloth from thrift store, tearing and seam ripping to prepare for projects.

That is the best tutorial I have seen on anything k3n 🎉 you instinctively know what the uninitiated will not be aware of. I worked as a lecturer in an Further Education college before I retired and we had to "meet the student where they were" and that could be very challenging trying to teach Scots law. The fact that you were a librarian is intriguing to me and I makes me feel i can finally uncover my creative side - which I wasn't sure existed to be honest 🤷 I always knitted and sewed but in a utilitarian way - making the garment! This is is just so so liberating - I can't find the words! And the fact that your aesthetic chimes exactly with mine is the "cherry on the cake" so to speak 😊 Time to watch Part 2 👍 big love as always from Scotland 🤗

I can’t wait to see the results! ❤

Oh, I've been longing to see this one! can't wait for part two!

Lookin forward to results….good to see someone else with a rust collection!

Thank you, k3n, for sharing your process. I've been learning to tea dye, coffee dye, and avocado dye fabric and paper ❤. It's a bit time consuming, but the results are pleasing. I've started a stitch book using the dyed fabric, and I love the look, but I don't have a good plan for the paper, yet 😂. I have lots of rusty bits in my collection, and will now give that a try. Thank you, again, for another great tutorial. Between you and Marion I'm keeping myself very busy 😂

I finally had time to tea and rust dye the past few days. One fun and unexpected result ... I decided to use up the remaining tea by passing extra papers through the liquid. And on a whim, I placed some papers on the cooling racks I use for my weekly sourdough baking. They are not rusted at all ... but with constant use, iron from the cast iron baking dishes I use had apparently built up on the racks. The tannin in the tea reacted with the residual iron to create a beautiful grid pattern on the papers! What larks!

I’ve tea dyed paper before but never seen anyone else use rusty objects. Can’t wait to see how the rust looks on the paper! I used to have a classic car, so seeing a bucket of rust made me feel quite nostalgic hahaha

wonderful thank you!! you are filling my brain with ideas :)

Fun to watch how others do this, seems we all do it a little differently. Thanks for sharing this!

Thank you for your video and for your narration I am so glad you talk to inanimate objects as I do. This looked a lot of fun,I will be in the shed first thing hoping for rusty things. Unfortunately it is a she shed so I may be out of luck😂 I bet your husband says he has a system in his shed. I have found it usually means I have put it in there and hope to find it if I ever need it again.

I’ve done a lot of rust and tea dying with different methods. Love the results always. I like to wrap the chunky pieces of rust in the cloth. Also copper gives you some lovely greens and brass can give you darker black marks. Can’t wait to see your results, I love the element of surprise. 😊❤

Another great video, just what i needed, thank you! I have a lot of rusty springs from an old trampoline. So not flat but i imagine i can roll cloth or paper around them. I foresee that this summer coming my garden will be filled with rust and tea dying pots and pans😀🍀💖

I have been looking for rusty bits for a while (my mum says I can have her knees ha ha) I remember you used to wear a fabulous skirt made from fabric you rust dyed 🤔

Brilliant. The image of your working space looked like a watercolour painting. I think it must have been the steam. Whatever it was, it was beautiful. I'm going to do some dyeing of threads today as I have so many colours from charity shops that I'm not keen on. Thank you 🙏🏻