Hi, I'll be trying a bunch of different stuff for dyes pretty soon (waiting for wool and cocoons).

I'm going to try different dried herbs from the health food store, and Mexican market :). First on the list is annato. It's been mentioned though.

I'm pretty sure dried hibiscus flowers will make a shade of red. I've drank hibiscus tea and a single tea bag makes an intensely tart, deep red tea. It's high in vitamin C too (not sure how that would affect dye, unless ascorbic acid affects dye). I'll just dump a box of it in my microwave safe bowl and start to microwave slow cooking :P. (I bought those disposable microwaveable bowls with lids just for crafting to be safe, and they're both good and cheap). My stove's electric so I can't go full-on pioneer no matter what. Plain old tea makes a nice ecru like color. It's what they use in movies to prematurely age fabrics. Oh, nearly forgot, Henna should make for a lovely color (I just need to experiment with mordants and curing time, will get back to you).

Dollars to doughnuts, using a copper pot changes results(chemical reaction).

I'm just going to use what's close at hand, and when I think about it, that's what the pioneers did too. So I'm adding kool-aid to the list, even if they didn't have red dye # 33 in the 19th century :)

- Nolita W.

Your site has an excellent list of natural dye plants and thought these few may be useful to you.

Yellow, Curly, Bitter, or Butter Dock (despite various leaf shapes, all have a bright yellow taproot) -yellow/flesh color. I have only experimented on lengths of cotton cording I had lying around, so results on wool may be drastically different. I read that this plant can produce a fairly clear yellow. Unfortunately I could only find a small plant with thin roots. It would have been difficult for me to peel all the roots of their thin bark/skin, so I decided to boil them with it still on. This produced a "wheat" shade on the cotton cord, a few shades yellower than a flesh tone. Alum seems to help the dye stick better, but is by no means necessary. Forget iron on the cotton cloth. It comes out a horrible dingy gray-brown. If I attain a true yellow with peeled roots I will send another e-mail.

When dyeing with turmeric, whose color stands up next to artificially dyed clothes, make sure you wear gloves and be careful not to splash. Otherwise your hands will be bright yellow for a week and whatever you splashed the dye on will be yellow almost forever. I learned the hard way.

If using lily-of-the-valley (light green) be careful what you do with the spent dye bath. The plant is toxic so try to avoid pouring it down the drain into the water supply. As long as there are no toxic mordants in the bath, I suggest you dump it outside.

Pokeberry is an easily accessible dye in my area, but it needs to be mordanted with alum or it will wash right out. It still is not very lightfast.

Regards, Eric

I noticed that your web page said red onions give a red dye. In the past when I have used red onion skin as a dye, I have gotten a medium green, lighter than forest green, but very nice. You also might want to add paprika, which gives an ever so slightly orange shade of pale yellow and is hard to wash out.

- Alma S.

Cumin, listed for yellow on your dye list does not provide color at all. All you get is water scented like Mexican or Indian food, which smells great, but isn't what I wanted. Perhaps the writer had meant curry powder, which contains a high percentage of turmeric, which is already listed for yellow. Turmeric dyed cloth will turn orange or red if it is dipped in lye. Pour water through wood ash in a coffee filter to make lye, then pour this over the dyed cloth and allow to sit. The color changes very rapidly, so be prepared to pull the cloth out and wash it quickly, or thin down the lye before use.

-Eric

Dark red or purple hibiscus flowers make a red-purple dye. If it happens to be winter and you are dying to dye (pun totally intended) buy some hibiscus flower tea (I used pompadour brand hibiscus flower and rose hip tea) and simmer a bunch of bags in water to make a strong dye bath.

- Eric

I am a gardener and grow daylilies. One particular variety is quite tall and orange when blooming. When the bloom closes after one day of blooming, I have often been touched by the old bloom which bleeds a red/purplish juice from it and it will stain my clothing. I have just experimented with these blooms on a paper towel and pressed the juices with a rolling pin and the colors are really beautiful. Of course it is not all over as though you were in a liquid state, but maybe it could be used to do designs on paper. I tried it with an old handkerchief and the colors stained the fabric, but I didn't get quite the nice bleeding into the fabric with a little red and yellow from the bloom as it did on the paper towel.

If anyone has any other suggestions, I would be interested in the paper dye as well as the fabric dye with these particular plants. Thanks.
- A.S.

Woad (first year leaves). Woad gives a pale to mid blue colour depending on the type of fabric and the amount of woad used. The dye itself is indigotin, the same dye present in indigo; however indigo contains 10 times more indigotin, hence the deeper the colour.

Woad is a relatively easy plant to grow, however it will easily over-run your garden if you let it. the best way to prevent this is after its second year (its a biennial plant) when the yellow flowers are present prune the plant so just a couple of the yellow flower clusters are left as this will provide more than enough seeds for regrowth.

- Ian S.

Hi, I am Deepali G. from Indore, India & am doing a project on dyeing of cotton, P/C & Polyester with beetroot. I've successfully applied the dye on the cotton fabric. It gave different shades with different mordants.

Dark Brown With FeSO4.
Shades of yellow with alum & K2Cr2O7.

I'd suggest you try it sometime.
- Deepali

With so much mystery surrounding lichen dyes, I decided to do some experimenting of my own. A pink, brown, or wine colored dye can be produced from a lichen known as British soldiers. This is a very distinctive lichen, unlike some of the others used for dyeing so it is impossible to mistake. In order to extract the dye, place the lichen in a glass jar and cover with ammonia. The lichen will soak up a lot, so it may be necessary to add more to cover it completely. Put a lid on the jar or rubber band several layers of plastic wrap over it. Within a minute or two, the ammonia will turn very dark. If a light is shone through it, it will look ruby red, but this is deceiving; the majority of the dye color is brown. Allow this mixture to soak overnight. The next day, or anytime after that (time can't hurt) pour the ammonia out and through a coffee filter to remove debris. Don gloves and wring the remaining ammonia out of the lichens, which will now be very soft and spongy.

If you plan to make multiple batches, save this lichen, as a bit more dye can be leached out of it with further ammonia soaking, then that mixture is poured over fresh lichen to conserve all the dye possible. The ammonia should be extremely dark at this point. To make a dye bath, thin it out, 1 part ammonia to 2 parts water will produce a medium-light pink on wool, mohair, and most likely silk. It barely dyes cotton or linen at all.

Simmer prewashed and wet yarn in this mixture (Outside, please, the concentrated fumes would be very dangerous if done indoors) The dye will achieve its maximum shade rather quickly, some of which will go down the drain when washed, properly mordanted and pre-washed, or not. (this is because the dark dye bath liquid will cling to the fibers, making it seem darker than the final product) It will be shockingly light for the depth of color in the dye bath. If you want to push the pink toward wine (albeit a light wine color), add vinegar to the dye bath and simmer for a few more minutes. The acid will unlock the ability of the brown dye to color the cloth. In the basic ammonia solution is was bound up and therefore could not taint the pink. A little brown color will serve to darken the pink, making it seem like a stronger shade. Pull the cloth out immediately to prevent further darkening. If you let it go too long, however, the cloth will end up being unmistakably brown with a pink undertone. In order to get a pure brown, acidify the dye bath with vinegar after exhausting the pink dye (this is probably after only one batch of material has been dyed). Anything simmered in this dye bath will come out a medium-light brown, and the dye bath will be entirely exhausted. Be careful when using lichens as dyes as they grow very slowly and harvesting them in any great quantity will undo perhaps hundreds of years if growth. The lichen I used is growing in vast quantity on the old wood fence in my backyard. Since it is being torn down very soon and replaced, I figured I'd harvest all that I could and not let it go to waste. Good luck.

- Eric

I have found that carob pod, boiled, will give a gray to cotton. Being of high tannin content, it can be used alone: I guess that the same would work from carob powder or syrup.

Regards and may God keep you well.

- C.W.Idris Ellis

Readers Tips For Dyes pg 1 - pg 2 - pg 3 - pg4

If you know of any other plants that should be added to this list, please contact us with the plant name and color dye it would make. Thanks!

email: editor@pioneerthinking.com