How sad to spend time making a rug and not have it withstand the test of time. You expect antique rugs to bear witness to the rages of temperatures, dirt and wear but a rug that hasn’t seen its first decade, not so much.
Of course I didn’t know what sunlight exposure would do to a rug, without experience to learn from, it didn’t even cross my mind when I hung it in the shop window. I have noticed red houses and red cars have a tendency to fade faster than other colours. With the exception of course of Santa Claus’s clothing; still gloriously red after all these years!
Other colours also fade to varying degrees. Yellow, not a strong colour fades but is less detected as it turns to a creamy white. All color absorbs wide spectrum or light from the Sun. The red color fades faster due to the red color components absorbing the blue ray, which in fact has a higher energy so that makes the red color molecules change (degrade) from time.
Blue has a shorter wave length, therefore higher energy. If you look at a rainbow's color spectrum, red is the complete opposite from blue or violet. From that, we can see that red will be the first "victim" among other visible color.
Red pigment molecules are larger. So, as a layer of large rocks will let through more light than a layer of sand, a layer of red pigment molecules end up having a lot more space between them and that's why it can take so many layers of paint to achieve full coverage.
Red can be a trickster when dyeing wool. No amount of mordent will afford complete confidence with permanent colour. I have a beautiful Persian carpet in my living room and every time it gets wet, either from Christmas tree water or a squirt from a pup, the paper towel is pink after absorbing the moisture. The wool we dye at the shop seems much better as far as colour fast goes. I’ve experimented earlier on when the question popped up. We spin dry together all the dyed wools of the day and they come out clean, but then of course, we aren’t washing with soap, just spinning it dry. Every new home maker suffers the horror of a red sock in a washing machine full of whites.
So keep your beautiful rugs away from the sun or suffer the same consequence. I was sick when I first noticed it. I’d hung it in the window at the shop and left it there for a month, my windows face the north side so it get very little sunlight. Other rugs have hung there without any repercussions but they didn’t have red in them.
I tried to be clever and doctor the loss by painting more dye with a sponge applicator on top of the faded red but it only muddied it down further. My mistake was that I should have applied straight red dye, not mix the formula that I had originally used over the dull red. I wasn’t starting with a base of white or natural so it just got darker and duller.
The option of pulling it out and rehooking the apples, maybe green this time, a Granny Smith look, is a thought but I have so little time to do the new rugs that inspire me, I hate to take a step back. And besides there has to be a bushel of apples there, a lot of hooking!
Some say they like the antique look, but they’re my friends and tell you things to make you feel better. Maybe I should keep this rug around to remind me of a lesson learned. I’m a loon, always feeling sorry for inanimate objects; it’s such a sad little rug now. I suppose, no rug is worthless, it can always be used as a good example of what not to do.
Of course I didn’t know what sunlight exposure would do to a rug, without experience to learn from, it didn’t even cross my mind when I hung it in the shop window. I have noticed red houses and red cars have a tendency to fade faster than other colours. With the exception of course of Santa Claus’s clothing; still gloriously red after all these years!
Other colours also fade to varying degrees. Yellow, not a strong colour fades but is less detected as it turns to a creamy white. All color absorbs wide spectrum or light from the Sun. The red color fades faster due to the red color components absorbing the blue ray, which in fact has a higher energy so that makes the red color molecules change (degrade) from time.
Blue has a shorter wave length, therefore higher energy. If you look at a rainbow's color spectrum, red is the complete opposite from blue or violet. From that, we can see that red will be the first "victim" among other visible color.
Red pigment molecules are larger. So, as a layer of large rocks will let through more light than a layer of sand, a layer of red pigment molecules end up having a lot more space between them and that's why it can take so many layers of paint to achieve full coverage.
Red can be a trickster when dyeing wool. No amount of mordent will afford complete confidence with permanent colour. I have a beautiful Persian carpet in my living room and every time it gets wet, either from Christmas tree water or a squirt from a pup, the paper towel is pink after absorbing the moisture. The wool we dye at the shop seems much better as far as colour fast goes. I’ve experimented earlier on when the question popped up. We spin dry together all the dyed wools of the day and they come out clean, but then of course, we aren’t washing with soap, just spinning it dry. Every new home maker suffers the horror of a red sock in a washing machine full of whites.
So keep your beautiful rugs away from the sun or suffer the same consequence. I was sick when I first noticed it. I’d hung it in the window at the shop and left it there for a month, my windows face the north side so it get very little sunlight. Other rugs have hung there without any repercussions but they didn’t have red in them.
I tried to be clever and doctor the loss by painting more dye with a sponge applicator on top of the faded red but it only muddied it down further. My mistake was that I should have applied straight red dye, not mix the formula that I had originally used over the dull red. I wasn’t starting with a base of white or natural so it just got darker and duller.
The option of pulling it out and rehooking the apples, maybe green this time, a Granny Smith look, is a thought but I have so little time to do the new rugs that inspire me, I hate to take a step back. And besides there has to be a bushel of apples there, a lot of hooking!
Some say they like the antique look, but they’re my friends and tell you things to make you feel better. Maybe I should keep this rug around to remind me of a lesson learned. I’m a loon, always feeling sorry for inanimate objects; it’s such a sad little rug now. I suppose, no rug is worthless, it can always be used as a good example of what not to do.
The reddish spot dyed wool I used for the leaf veins has also faded. All the colours have faded in varying degrees but the apples tool the biggest hit and the yellow of the pineapple second but I can live with that as they are not that bright in real life, nor do they have the lustrous polished skin of an apple. The apples feel bruised when I look at them. Poor little Mackintoshes!
And yes, I know I haven't sewn on rug binding yet...shame on me!
And yes, I know I haven't sewn on rug binding yet...shame on me!
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