Black walnuts -- the end

After I noted a week ago that my walnut-dyed fabric was a little pale, several people left comments that I needed more nuts, more time, more heat.  So I gathered up another batch of walnuts, cooked them up, put some fabric into the hot pot to simmer, and then wrapped the cooked nuts in other pieces of fabric.  

This did make the color darker, but I also came to the conclusion that I'm not a big fan of the black walnut color.  I tend to like cool browns and dislike warm ones, and the nuts gave a distinctly warm color. 

I did like the accidental stains that resulted from direct contact with the nuts, much more than the even color of a dyepot.

 

I cooked another batch of nuts for walnut ink, but this time I simmered the liquid down to a sludge, spread it onto a plate and let it dry into crystals.  These are a specialty product sold for calligraphy, so you can mix a batch of ink to exactly the color you want.  Being able to make my own seemed like a good idea, notwithstanding the fact that I just bought a new bottle of commercial walnut ink, and just made a jar of homemade.  Guess I'll have to use walnut ink on my Christmas ornaments this year.  And every year for the rest of my life. 
 
Finally, I managed to lean against the gooey pan in my orange T shirt, a garment that I wasn't terribly fond of to begin with, and decided to wrap some nuts in it to make more stains.  You know, one black stain is an accident, several are a design.  I love the way the shirt looks now, and decided to let it sit  unwashed for a while in hopes of setting the black.  
 

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
And that's all I'm ever going to do with black walnuts.  Enough is enough.  The end.