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ELDALA is quite pleased at the compliment offered her way by both Calder and her Master. Calder was first with his own quip, to which she replied humbly,"Thank you Calder but the only reason I knew to use them is because my home before Helovia was next to the ocean so much of our dyes came from there." Then came Johnny's compliment. It was one which caused her to beam happily. /Good job Eldala, you've made your Master happy. Maybe someday you'll remember to keep working so that he'll move you up a rank./
Then he asks the golden question, the one she'd been waiting for, and it causes her beaming to increase exponentially. "Yes, indeed. Certain types of the snails emit a certain purple dye-goo when stressed or...well...squashed. You need to collect quite a lot but, after the dye is created, it is supposed to be much more lightfast than any other purple dye. This means that it will hold up to the sun's hot rays and take a long time to fade. Back home only the royals were allowed to wear the color."
She looks between Calder and Johnny, happy to be of some use to her herd, before continuing, "Any dye can be complicated to make though, really. The two most important things to remember when making a dye are this:
1. Whatever substance you're using to make the dye will need to be boiled in water or put in very hot water for quite some time before you can add the wool or silk to it.
2. You have to remember to add a "fixative" if you're using wool or silk. For berries and this purple dye you need salt. I think for other plant dyes you needed vinegar but I can't be sure. If you want to use cotton then things get even more complicated and you'll need an iron cauldron in addition to the dye.
I never learned how to make all of the dyes but I learned a few. One of the colors was the Sea Snail Purple. For this I gathered the snails and salt in a pad of moss to bring it home. Once here I rigged a little branch sling thing to hold a rock bowl that held the sea snail water mix. I kept it just inside the hot spring water, but not overflowing because that would have meant losing all my hard work, haha. It stayed covered and as hot as possible for about a week before I added the wool into the stuff. Once you get the wool in its the easiest part; all you have to do it check on it every once in a while to see if the dye has gotten as dark as you want it to be yet. The longer its in the darker it will get."
The little mare took a breath after all that talking. Eldala was pretty sure that was around the longest she'd ever continuously spoken. Hopefully, some of that had made sense. Then Calder spoke about the raspberries, Johnny exlaimed, and she replied herself with a simple, "Thats a fantastic idea! We could dye Johnny's bag pink!" And then she laughed a bit after saying it. It was all pretty fantastic really and she was flying just a tiny bit higher after this small success. She felt important. /Well this whole adulting thing is going well so far./
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[O] Purple Steam[Crafting Lesson/Gift?]
