Dye in Chayatire

Chayatire is a community, about an hour and a half outside of Cusco, up the mountain from Pisac (in the sacred valley). Elevation: almost 4000m This community does almost exclusively Ley techniques in their weaving, and they love their reds/purples more than anything. I mean, they REALLY love red, to the point we did nothing but cochineal-based dyes until (and finished them after) lunch. 4 types of cochineal dye colors, using 22kilos of Cochineal yesterday: Bright Red (Fire Scarlet), Dark Red, Garnet, and Purple.



And so you get an idea what a vat in this situation looks like, here's the Cochineal dye notes I took yesterday:

Rojo Oscuro:
80L pot
~30kilos Lana

2.5 tazas Alum
1.75 tazas Citric Acid
2Kilos + 5 tazas Cochineal
2tazas Vinagre

Morado Oscuro:
80L pot
~20kilos Lana

2 tazas Alum
2 tazas Citric Acid
2 kilos Cochineal
5 tazas Copper Sulfate

Rojo Claro:
Q’uolle yellow first
Cochineal is added to the same yellow vat, after the most flowers possible are strained out.

80L pots
~20kilos lana

2 tazas Alum
1 taza Citric Acid
1.5 kilos Cochineal

Also:
Exhaust Rojo Claro – Add more Q’uolle for orange
Exhaust Rojo Oscuro – Add more Alum/Citric Acid/ Cochineal/ Copper Sulfate for purple
Exhaust Morado – Added to a fresh Rojo Oscuro vat to make granate.

Cochineal Notes:
Alum = Mordant
Citric Acid = Helps yarn absorb the Cochineal’s color, because otherwise it washes out
Vinegar = helps set color (modifier)

I'm not sure most of the fiber artist I know can imagine an 80L pot let alone the amount of yarn that fits into one. But that's how it was (and always is) at the dyes. My plan for these recipes is to cut them down to only being for 1kilo of yarn. That way, it might actually be useful for someone like me (or the Center's future volunteers).

Some pictures I took during the Cochineal Dyes:

Sorting the skeins for the different dyes we'd be doing.



Preparing dyes. The first is Chilq'ua (dark green), the second is Palo-Palo (peach).





Some of the Tejadoros stirring the dye pots. There are more male weavers in Chayatire than any other community the center works with.



Removing yarn from the vat.



Cochineal pots simmering...



More hoisting of yarn from vats (piles and piles of red yarn!)





This girl was the daughter of one of the community elders. She was absolutely fascinated by us (the strangers) and kept trying to creep over to get closer without us noticing (she also snuck up on me and touched my hair at one point, so cute). We gave her some of our extra potatoes, which she took shyly, and then climbed into her dad's lap.



After lunch was Palo-Palo (peach), Kinsa Q'uchu (turquoise), Chilq'ua (dark green), Orange (bright red cochineal exhaust + more Q'uolle), and el color del diablo (which is basically a dark dark colored vat, where all the cochineal exhaust water that's left is mixed, sometimes with a bit of other dye waters, and they get a burgundy/brown color). I myself ended the day with a skein of bright red, a skein of dark red, 2 skiens of garnet, a skein of dark purple, a skein of turquoise, and a skien of orange. Not a bad haul, if I say so myself.