The next step is to filter out the madder root and sediment so that a red liquid remains. To do that, I am using a fine cotton cloth taped inside a bucket with a strainer over it and mesh cloth in the strainer (whew!) . Here are the component parts and the assembly:
The mesh in the strainer is intended to catch the large particles so that they don't clog up the finer filter in the cotton cloth. Here it is in action:
I had to replace the cotton cloth a few times because it was getting clogged -- this could probably be avoided by using whole madder root instead of ground madder root, but I used ground root because Kremer was out of stock of whole root. After straining, red liquid is left at the bottom of the bucket (although the deep red color of the liquid doesn't show well in these pictures):
Next, a solution of warm water and alum is prepared and added to the bucket:
As you can see, adding the alum solution causes a lot of frothing and creates a muddy mixture:
This muddy mix needs to sit for three days and stirred once or twice per day. At that point, the frothing will die down and it will be ready for the next steps. Expect an update post mid-week.
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