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FOR WILL,
I found one of your posts, here on Cardboard Christmas, last week and I can't seem to find the old thread? It was in reply to your new coconut house that you made. I thought I had copied your email address correctly but it won't go through? So I'll post my questions and observations here.
Hello Will,
I really enjoyed the Putz House you build and displayed over at the Forum. Great
choice and bright colors. That makes for a wonderful Putz Scene addition.
I was reading, with interest, your post about coconut over at cardboardchristmas. I'm glad someone
was able to get some real rice straw. I've been trying for over 5 years to get my hands on some. I'd
be glad to purchase some from you if you still have that bale? LOL
From everything that I know about the rice straw and your description on the dying it I don't
believe that the Japanese used rice straw? When you told me how much and what kind of
dye that you used to color the coconut I knew something wasn't right. I think everybody knows
I use wheat straw. It's plentiful here in the midwest of course. However, it's not your everyday
straw. It has to be straw grown in a very wet year. The straw comes out of the fields very light
in color, getting close to white. The darker the natural straw the harder it is to control the color
that you want. Yellow straw when trying to dye it blue will become green. Any light colors you
try to make will become an undesired dark shade of that color or even totally different.
A lot of the time you'll want to start with an off white or a pure white straw. (Brian has probably
taught you how to make white straw). There are a couple of inherent problems in achieving
pure white straw. One of them is that you lose the luster/shine of the coconut and that defeats
the whole purpose of using coconut. It's the shine that gives the coconut it's uniqueness.
From the internet pictures I can't really see the shinny silica outer coating on the stalks of
the rice stem? With the wheat straw you can see that luster ten feet away.
When I'm making a batch of coconut (usually 2 ounces at a time) I start with 35cc of water
and, depending on my desired color, 5 to 15 drops of coloring. For most colors the 15
drops would make a dark rich shade. From your description of how much dye you need
it just doesn't sound right? When I used to use sawdust to make a faux coconut then I'd
use the quantities of coloring that your expressing. You know what makes the straw
shinny and what holds the color, right?
Please let me know if I can purchase some rice straw from you. I'd really appreciate
the opportunity to play with some.
Hope to hear from you, Pete
Pete R. Oehmen
N3251 State Road 67
Lake Geneva, WI 53147
262-245-9652
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