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Natural Dyes From Plants |
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Making Natural Dyes From
Plants |
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Readers Tips Page 3 |
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I stumbled across a very nice
dye by deadheading my "near black" iris. It stained
my fingers a very dark purple. I used an alum mordant and a silk
scarf....beautiful color! Sort of a dark blue purple. Love it.
- Margo
Hi! You really should mention that neither salt nor vinegar is
actually a fixative. Vinegar is a pH modifier, that can be used
to help in takeup of dye, and salt is an assist used to "open
up" the fibers to take dye more readily, but neither one
actually does anything to set the dye. You need a mordant to
actually get colorfast colors. Alum is the easiest to obtain
of these, McCormick's makes alum that is sold in the spice or
canning section of most grocery stores. You need to add some
alum to water, bring it up to a simmer, and simmer your fiber
to be dyed in the alum.
- Teresa H. |
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Hi I am from the UK and have
only just started to dye from natural materials. I recently lost
a large branch in a strong wind from our Weeping Willow. I found
that I was able to get the most beautiful peachy brown from the
wood and bark. The beauty of this is that is was very colour
fast as the tannin acts as a mordant. Just thought that you might
like to add that to the list. Love your website.
Cheers Tricia from the UK |
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Just a note regarding Dyer's
Woad...it is considered a noxious week in some states,
so if you decide to grow it in your garden, it is probably best
to grow it in a pot, and make sure that your seeds aren't scattered
by the wind.
- E. A. Pinkerton |
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Yellow Dye- turmeric (spice)
--bright yellow.
-K.Christine |
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Brazilwood – any of the
red wood trees in this family produce a red color the trees are
actually named after the dyes.
Logwood is a good purple but
you have to watch it as it dyes quick when the pot is fresh.
Also it exhausts fast. We use alum to mordant and using iron
can give you logwood gray.
Pomagrante – with alum
anywhere from orange to khaki green. Yellows in the orange end
of the spectrum on wool and yellow green or khaki on cotton.
It is high in tannin so to get the khaki color I don’t add
the alum. This dye was and still is used in India. The skins
are dried for future use in dyeing when the fruit is processed
for food. Pomagrante color varies with the variety and the darker
skinned fruit gives stronger colors. They can be grown in areas
of the US. We had a bush in west texas and they are grown in
california
- T. Bradford |
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The red leaf buds of many maple
trees make a nice red-brown color when dried, found on branches
before new leaves appear only present during early spring and
throughout fall.
- K. Walker |
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