Equipment Gathering

So the other day I made the rounds to the Salvation Army store and to Goodwill here in Colorado Springs to see if I could find some used enamel or stainless steel cookware. The stainless would be the best, but enamel would do, especially for the mordanting. Unfortunately, cookware was in short supply at these locations. They did have aluminum, glass, and Corning ware. Still the eight plus quart stockpots that I would need just weren’t there.

While the family and I were at Target, I found some really suitable and inexpensive pots. The eight-quart stainless pot was on sale for about $15, and the enamel 7 1/2-quart stockpot was less than $15 as well. Although it was a bit more than what I had anticipated spending we purchased one of each. (Another option that had crossed my mind was to adopt our old kitchen cookware and purchase some new.) The Target purchases have turned out to be the least expensive option for now.

I have a couple of 20 lb propane bottles in the garage. And, I have a propane space heater as a heat source for working outside in the back yard. That is where I plan to do the mordant and dye baths. I’d like to have an alternative in case of a boil-over or spill. By the time we’re ready we may have that some how taken care of. (Hot plate of course.)

Since we are using no production quantities of fabrics we’ll use a dish rack or something similar for a drying rack or use a clothesline arrangement. All we’ll be trying to do is a sample hank, and a three by three inch fabric square of cotton and the same hank and square of wool for each of the, fabric appropriate, mordant types for each dye bath. We won’t need a full drying rack.