This is another one of those experiments where I wonder where the heck people keep getting their results from.
Recipes and ramblings under the break
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| Yeah the wall is blue, but look how blue this stuff gets too! |
Warning: this is toxic stuff. Wear gloves like always, avoid fumes, do this in a well ventilated area. It also corrodes metal, so if you plan on storing this long term I suggest putting a layer of plastic between the lid and the jar. You probably shouldn't heat it up either, though there are some who add a diluted form of it to their kettle dyes. I don't plan on heating it.
I'm still not sure if this is supposed to be a dye or a dye modifier. Copper (II) sulfate, or its older name blue vitriol (which is much cooler) sounded like it would be straight forward to make. You soak copper in some liquid for a couple weeks and the liquid turns blue. And it is, as long as you don't over complicate it like I did. Or try to use vinegar, which I swear does not work.
Multiple sources online said you could make this using a mixture that's half vinegar and half water. The solution is supposed to turn blue within a week, and can supposedly be used to dye wool green or enhance blues and greens in other dyes (a saddening agent). I would have loved for the vinegar method to work since it would at the very least smell better than the ammonia method, but it does not work. It does shine the copper up nice though. I have no idea how so many people are posting
The method that works for me is to soak the copper in a mixture half ammonia half water. Online it said that the easiest way to obtain the copper is to use pennies. Pre-1980 ones have a high enough copper content to drive the reaction, and it only takes around 100 of them. I thought I would be smart and use some salvaged thick copper wire instead of sorting through hundreds of pennies. A good enough idea I guess, except I think the wire was coated in a clear protective layer to prevent tarnishing. Maybe. But there was peeling stuff and slime and not a good time in that jar after about a week. So just use pennies, it only takes $1.
The second batch came out fine and it does dye wool sort of green, but it's a yellow green rather than a blue green like the pictures I was seeing. I filled a jar half full of it, then filled the rest with water and soaked wool in it overnight to get the first picture.
The problem with making it with ammonia is that ammonia burns most pigments to a dull yellow brown. So even though copper (II) sulfate in its crystalline structure enhances blues and greens, this liquid blue vitriol is going to burn most dyes it comes in contact with. It should be okay when paired with other ammonia based dyes (it's gorgeous with the rock tripe), but I can't use it with pretty much any pigment based dye.
So... I made it. And it does make an okay green, and goes well with rock tripe. Not sure what else to do with it. But you can re-use the pennies!
Maybe I should just throw some pennies in with the rock tripe.
***Update 9/30/17***
The second batch of blue vitriol was brewed with the same pennies as the first, yet for some unfathomable reason dyes a lovely lavender grey. I don't know if this is due to the other metals present in the pennies or a contaminant of some sort. The color of the liquid is exactly the same as before, and I've heard of no other cases of this happening. Not sure if it will be repeatable or not, but I guess I'll update after the next batch.
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