frightfiction Chapter 346 Is it all in vain?
Chapter 346 Is it all in vain?
In fact, this is not the color of the food itself, but the coloring with gardenia. However, this is a pure natural pigment and will not cause harm to the human body.
In addition to being used as a food additive, gardenia can also be used to make tea to clear away heat, detoxify, and relieve liver fire.
As early as the pre-Qin period, gardenia fruit was used as a natural dye for dyeing cloth. Gardenia fruit contains crocetin, which can dye different shades of yellow or even gray-green.
The "Han Guanyi" records: "The dyeing garden produces gardenia and madder for dyeing imperial clothes."
This shows that gardenia dye was also used to dye the highest-quality clothing at that time, otherwise how could the imperial robes be dyed.
In ancient times, acid was used to control the depth of yellow dyeing of gardenia. If a darker yellow was desired, the amount of vinegar in the dye was increased.
Gardenia extract can be used to directly dye fabrics into bright yellow, the process is simple,
In fact, it is not only gardenia that can dye yellow, but also turmeric, sophora japonica, knotweed, phellodendron, rehmannia and other plants.
Red dyes also include safflower, madder, impatiens, and hematoxylin.
As for green, it is also easy to find because it can be extracted from mugwort leaves and loofah leaves, which can be found in large quantities in the village.
So for the time being, the nine tribes' dyes are ready, including red, purple, yellow, green, blue and black.
As for wanting more colors, Shen Youyou can completely use these color combinations.
There is also white dye, which is the easiest to make. Soak rice in water for an hour, then filter it through filter paper, leaving the mixed white paste. This white paste can be used instead of white pigment.
Grind the walnut shells finely, add a small amount of water, stir evenly, filter with gauze, and leave a white liquid. This liquid can also replace white pigment.
Even the pig bones they had left over from chewing on the ground into powder could be used as a substitute for white dye powder.
Shen Youyou chose the most convenient method for the time being, which was to soak rice in water. She did not plan to use too much white dye for the time being.
At most, you can add some when you want to adjust the color, and then add it if you need to generate white plastic cloth later.
Shen Youyou put all the dyes she had extracted into plastic bags one by one, which made the plastic bags easy to make.
Use the plastic sheet pressed by iron plate, fold it in half, and then use a red-hot iron rod to heat it to make a perfect connection and ensure that there is no air leakage.
Although it looks a bit ugly, it is good enough for my own use for now.
She got up and walked out of the house to check the stone mill mold she had made.
To be honest, this plaster mold is really difficult to make. It is as simple as I imagined it to be at the beginning, but it is actually very difficult to make.
But after many days of revisions, she finally succeeded.
The mold for rain boots is the most complicated. Other molds are easy to make, but this one took a lot of effort.
This method is different from the one Shen Youyou made before. After all, that method is more suitable for making rubber rain boots.
But plastic rain boots won’t work because plastic is not as elastic as rubber. If they are too thin, they will break easily, and if they are too thick, they will become too hard.
Moreover, that method of making rain boots is too slow and not conducive to mass production.
The rain boots mold is divided into three parts. Shen Youyou made two cube molds, one side of which is a concave half leg. When these two rectangles are put together, the empty space inside just looks like a rain boot.
But it is not enough to just make real shoes like this, it also has a third part, which is a solid mold similar to a human leg.
It is just like the legs formed by the two concave molds, but a little smaller. There is also a wooden stick on top that crosses the graphic mold to provide support.
When using it, you need to place the leg-shaped mold between the two rectangular molds before merging them. Then merge the two rectangular molds.
The stick on top of the leg-shaped mold can also serve as a support, allowing it to be fixed without touching any side of the leg-shaped groove.
After Shen Zhiqiu finished his work over there and wanted to go home, he saw his daughter squatting and checking the molds.
He said aloud, "How is it? Have you done it? I haven't seen you since you've been to the firepit."
Shen Youyou turned around and smiled: "It's dry. It hasn't rained in the past few days and the sun is very strong. It's all dried."
Shen Zhiqiu still had some concerns, so he asked directly: "I think this mold is OK, but have you ever thought about whether it will stick to the plaster if you pour the liquid plastic directly into it, and it will be inconvenient to get it out later."
Shen Youyou said: "I wonder if it would be easier to demould if I apply a layer of oil on the liquid plastic. If that doesn't work, I'll think of other ways. Otherwise, let's try it later."
Shen Zhiqiu nodded. Failure is the mother of success. Nothing can be accomplished overnight. What if it works?
He called a few men over to help grease the mold.
Shen Youyou had already made three sets of rain boots molds.
She brought some starch into the house to make plastic.
She has become extremely familiar with this process in the past few days.
In order to make it flow better, the plastic liquid in her first can was thinner.
She just couldn't put the plastic in it because the clay pot was too hot, and she couldn't put it in one spoonful at a time.
But when you pick up the pottery jar and pour it directly, the gap between the molds is difficult to control, and in short, a lot of liquid plastic remains outside.
Moreover, not even one mold was filled and the liquid plastic was almost cooling down. It was not as simple as Shen Youyou thought.
Shen Zhiqiu looked at the somewhat depressed Shen Youyou and consoled her: "It's okay, we'll think of other ways. Nothing can be successful in one go. Besides, being able to research plastics in ancient times is already amazing."
Li Jingshu just came back to deliver some freshly made sweet potato paste.
Seeing her daughter staring at the plaster mold with her brows frowning, her little face almost wrinkled together, her husband stood there patting her daughter's thin shoulders, with a gentle look on his face to comfort her.
My uncle and his brothers also looked a little at a loss, and there was some solidified plastic in the earthenware jar on the ground.
She didn't have to think too much, it must be that the experiment failed.
I know in my heart that my daughter has traveled back to ancient times, like a fish entering the sea, and can do everything smoothly without any difficulties. So it is not a bad thing for her to encounter difficulties now.
But I still need to comfort the child: "Hey, don't worry. It's not a bad thing if we can't make the rain boots for the time being. We can make the soles first. Our soles are enough to open their eyes to new things. None of them have seen plastic soles before!"
Shen Zhidong also nodded quickly and said, "Yes, in the past, if you wanted to make a pair of shoes, you had to sew the soles, which was very laborious and took a long time. Now that we have the soles, we only need to make the uppers and sew them on. It will definitely sell well, and we don't have to sell rain boots."
Shen Youyou is not a real child, so she naturally knows that everyone is trying to comfort her. She does not have no other solution except this one.
It's just that other methods are too labor-intensive. It should be said that this method is for her to use when she wants to earn some money first and then expand production.
"There is actually another way,"
She found a wooden stick and drew something that looked like a stove on the ground, then explained as she drew.
"If we make a stove like this, we use iron to make this kind of mold on it"
She pointed to the plaster mold on the ground and continued, "When you open it, put the pre-made plastic strip into the mold.
By then, the entire mold will be hot, and the plastic strip inside will melt. Because of the extrusion and heating, the plastic strip can be turned into rubber shoes."