alexj's Profile

Bad, misinformed article.

1. If you boil wool, you're likely to felt it. You should never boil animal fibres (unless you're aiming for felt).
2. Commercial fabrics needs to be scoured with detergent and a scouring agent prior to dyeing to remove sizing and any grease.
3. Salt is not a mordant. Metal salts like chromium are, but most are highly toxic and should not be used in home kitchens. Fabrics should be mordanted for absorption and lightfastness.
4. Animal fibres (wool) and plant fibres (cotton) dye differently and require different prep methods.
5. Most of the dyes listed will fade within a few months, they are not substantive and have poor lightfastness. Just because something will stain your fingers doesn't mean it will dye fibre.

If you want to learn effective natural dyeing, I recommend "Wild Colour" or "Colors From Nature" by Jenny Dean. She has an informative blog as well.

I'm in Canada and I've been allowed to paint all three apartments I've lived in. In the first one the landlady bought everything for me, which was unsurprising since the previous tenant had sponge- and faux-painted every surface in every room in the most hideous manner possible. In the second the owner said he didn't care what I did, and in my current place the landlady just wanted to approve the colours ahead of time, and I have to paint it back to white if the next tenants don't like my colours.

This is the first time I've felt compelled to comment on AT, since I just lucked into a dirt cheap Plycraft Eames-knockoff on the weekend. It's the first piece of decent furniture I've been able to acquire since most of my income has been geared towards other priorities.

I'm going to buy a) what I like, and b) what I can afford. So long as the piece isn't being misrepresented, I am quite happy to purchase from a manufacturer (or thrift shop) making decent design accessible to those who aren't wealthy. Like jplee and inkstainedwriter, I don't feel obliged to wait until I'm able to fork over a few months' rent for one chair.