Once upon a time my mother owned a muffin tin. It had a curious pattern stamped on the bottom of each of the twelve cups. I don’t remember my mother ever making muffins. When I cleaned out her estate, I knew I would be using this baking pan a lot, not for making muffins but for rust dyeing. I noticed it had a bit of rust developing on it.

The first time you take a “draw” from any rusty item, be prepared to be disappointed. Please do not let that initial disappointment discouraged you.

Below you can see the first draw from a big metal colander I bought especially for rust dyeing. I paid quite a lot of money for it at an antique shop because I KNEW it would make cool cloth. After that first draw I was very angry at myself for spending so much money. A year later I tried again and I got...a sunflower. A few draws later I realized I could make a black center, simply by pouring a little bit of sumac juice onto the center of the colander while making the image transfer.

The same was true of my mother’s muffin tin. The first couple of draws were so bad I over-dyed them.  But soon I was able to transfer the interesting pattern from the bottom of the pan to the cloth. The fabric at the top of this page was moved to a new position after the first draw was completed.  I don’t remember the exact moment I first thought of pouring sumac juice into the upside down muffin tin, but all the excess liquid made the fabric cling to the sides of the cups. When I pulled the fabric off the muffin tin, I saw several images that looked like turtles. The pattern stamped on the bottom of the muffin tin became the pattern on their shell and the places where the fabric had clung to the sides of the cup became heads, legs and tails!!!

I continued to use this pan until it rusted away. Even though the pan is no longer in my family, I think I made much better use of it than my mother did.

Remains of the magical turtle producing muffin tin being supported by a plastic tray

Another turtle fabric made from the muffin tin.

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