Ha ha love it

I cannot wait to try the dyes next Fall once I gather again. I discarded all my husks, LOL. Now I know better! My angora wool is going to be so pretty!!!🐇🐇🐇

Thanks for pointing that out Jen, as an older gal, I appreciate anything natural that can slow the ‘decrepitude’! 🤣

Are they only toxic if ingested?

@@denise3808 yes

How brilliant thx

Irresistible aren't they! You never grow out of picking up conkers!

Glad it was helpful!

Tesla clearly approves and gives the universal kitty sign of approval: sleeping next to the project. Of course, if he really went nuts about it, he would sleep on top of the colors.

Do you live in North America? If so, over here they are more commonly known as buckeye trees.

So , I have this in my backyard-the "Horsse Chestnut/Buckeye" and it HAS the spikes- maybe there are variations as you stated? Im in Ohio also, am going to call it a Horse Chestnut- cause my neighbors need to know

@@heidibird1125 Horse chestnuts in Texas look totally different and chestnuts from upstate NY look more like the video, so I am a little confuuuuuused!

It's a very sensible question. It's fine in small amounts, and things like steel or plastics that don't absorb things are easily cleaned, but if I was processing lots, a non porous chopping board would be a sensible option. In this case, when scrubbed the saponin residues actually help clean the board, but it's never a bad move to have a different chopping board for non food items as a general principle.

You’ll have to tell us if it made a difference in your dermatitis.

Hi when I had babies in the 90s the midwife told me to use badedas bath to help healing bits! Worked a treat. Good luck I'm sure it will help 😊

I love walnut dye, hoping for a few more walnuts locally for a skein to add to the chestnut dyed ones, then I think something over a base of oak gall tannin from the local trees and I can design something to use all these together

@@SallyPointer We have black walnuts here that are so bitter they're inedible, and the husks get toxic as they mold, but have wondered if they're good for something.

A conker is one of the horse chestnuts with a bit of string through it. British children play games with them where you swing your conker at the opponent's and the opponent swings back at yours. The person with the least broken conker wins.

Wood may well add tannins if it's own, clay is usually pretty inert if well fired, but some clays can add iron traces too. Haven't had the chance to try stone yet. It's an excellent observation though and it would be a lot of fun to test scientifically in a carefully controlled comparison.

Really pleased you like it. I've got a few other dyeing videos that might help re mordants and modifiers.

What a great experiment

Dried is fine, but probably easiest to dye with fresh just because of the bulk

Thank you!

Actually, these are not chestnut trees. In North America what we call chestnut trees are the edible nuts, also called sweet Chestnut. Those are the ones that were impacted by the blight, although by crossbreeding for blight resistance, Chestnuts are coming back as a crop at least in Ohio! But again, that is a different tree than what she’s featuring in this video. In North America, the tree she is featuring is usually called the Buckeye tree, or less commonly the HORSE chestnut. It is an entirely different family and it’s not edible at all. Living in North America I’ve never heard of the game of conckers until this past month, but Buckeye trees are very popular. Buckeye trees come in many different varieties, with different colored wood, different heights and cold tolerances. The blooms come in white, pink, red and yellow. Buckeyes are well known as the state tree of Ohio, the mascot for Ohio State University, and the inspiration for very tasty peanut butter chocolate Buckeye candies! So I’m not sure where exactly you live in North America, but you might want to check and see if the buckeye tree grows in your part of the continent.

Yes, you may want to chop them before drying for ease, but they do store

@@SallyPointer thank you.👍

He and his mum pop up in quite a few of the videos, whether I want them to or not!

Well corrected! I was probably getting fuddled between the political regions and the geographical whole! Do forgive me, I'm a bit addled at the moment with everything going on.

He knows where he looks pretty 😄

Wow! It's certainly a reactive combination

Thank you so much

Dried is fine, they just take a bit more effort to crush before use

Sally Pointer Can’t wait for your next video. Happy hedge bothering and thank you for your advise.

You can dry the conkers, easiest to chop them first. Made liquid soap lasts about a week in the fridge.

Yes indeed, just chop and dry the conkers

Remember if it's cotton you'll need to mordant differently to wool, add tannin to your process after scouring and before the alum (look up mordanting cotton if you aren't already familiar with the process). You can get the iron sulphate from the same suppliers as you get your alum from (try eBay if you dont have a preferred mordant supplier already) or just soak rusty nails in vinegar for a while, that will do the trick.

@@SallyPointer, thank you so much for the information. You would have had a new subscriber, if I hadn't subscribed already. Xx

They are pretty good, but definitely more light sensitive than modern acid dyes.

I've got a jar of liquid over a year old now that hasn't gone off, but probably easier to chop then dry the conkers and make it fresh as needed, especially if you want to use it directly on the skin

Any dye and mordant supplier, many garden centres also sell it, eBay etc, or you can soak scrap iron in vinegar for a simple alternative

Works with dried as well

There will be a series of videos on soapmaking from scratch in the next year, I'll be doing lots as part of a research project and will film sections

Looking forward to these series! Wish you great fun with the project

Lichen occasionally, but whilst I'm aware of mushroom dyeing it's not part of my regular repertoire