Science or art? It's both!
Surprise- it's green!
Cruise and some friends decided to find out if they could tie dye fabric with the dye from smashed flower petals. With chrysanthmum blossoms to spare (checked for toxicity, all I could find was that people used the plant leaves in salad) , I decided, why not? Here’s what they did:
1. Pulled the flower heads off the plant (premature dead heading, which didn’t hurt the plant).
2. Pulled the petals off each flower head.
3. Smashed the petals into a paste using a mortar and pestle (another outside the toybox toy favorite!).
4. Added a little white vinegar and table salt to make a dye bath that would better stain fabric.
5. Tied a scrap of old t-shirt with cotton string.
6. Soaked the shirt scrap in the dye bath for a few minutes.
7. Still wrapped in the string, let the balled up fabric dry for a few days.
8. Cut the string off, smoothed the fabric and surprise! what started as a purple liquid had dried green.
Try dying fabrics from plants in your own backyard. Will your flower petal change colors, too? Let me know!
