How to Dye with Raw Materials

Our cochineal insect instructions will help extract color from cochineal insects, native of Mexico and South America. These scale insects produce carminic acid and are a traditional way of obtaining bright red, brilliant pink, and purple dyes. It is the only natural red color that was approved by the Food and Drug Administration for food and cosmetic use and is often used as the substitute for the notorious Red Dye #2. Fiber Preparation and Mordanting We offer scouring instructions for wool, alpaca, silk (protein), cotton and plant (cellulose) fibers on these How To pages. When dyeing with cochineal, protein fibers mordanted with aluminum sulfate alone create … Read more

Flowers such as weld, coreopsis, dahlias, sulfur cosmos, marigold, sunflower and dyer’s chamomile are all considered dye flowers. Each of these plants will create various shades but their extraction techniques are similar. These instructions are for creating immersion dye baths. Fiber Preparation and Mordanting We offer scouring and mordanting instructions for wool, alpaca, silk (protein), cotton and plant (cellulose) fibers. Your fiber should be scoured and mordanted before dying. Creating and Using a Dyebath The amount of flowers needed ranges from 20-100% weight of fiber (WOF). Larger amounts of flowers will create darker and more saturated shades. If you are using fresh flowers, start … Read more

We asked Julie Beeler, founder of the Mushroom Color Atlas, to dye some of our wool gauze with these mushrooms and she got lovely results! These recipes are courtesy of Julie Beeler’s experiments. Your results may differ. Julie also made lake pigments with the exhausted dye baths and created watercolors with the reclaimed pigments. Cortinarius semisanguines (Surprise Web Cap) The wool gauze is mordanted in iron at 2% of the weight of fiber (WOF), or in Aluminum Potassium Sulfate at 15% WOF + Cream of Tartar at 6% WOF. Grind the dried mushrooms into a fine powder in a coffee … Read more

Sarah Tremaine is a textile artist, dyer and environmental scientist in Virginia who lives on that farm and did lots of tests and experiments with fruitwood trimmings as part of her own practice and shared the results with us. We quickly became enamored of the wonderful shades, and were able to get some boxfuls of her annual pruning and trimmings for your next dye exploration. These are bark chips, twigs and buds from four trees: cherry, apple, pear, peach, apricot and plum, and the colors are blossom soft and aromatic. Fiber Preparation and Mordanting We offer scouring and mordanting instructions for wool, alpaca, silk … Read more

Alone, oak galls make a light beige color by themselves and lighten slightly when followed by an alum mordant. When dipped in an iron afterbath, the color quickly changes to a gray or “black” shade, depending on the amount of dye used. Fiber Preparation and Mordanting We offer scouring and mordanting instructions for wool, alpaca, silk (protein), cotton and plant (cellulose) fibers. Your fiber should be scoured and mordanted before dyeing. Extracting the Dye Use oak galls at 10-50% on the weight of fiber (WOF). If you have whole oak galls, you will need to crush them into a powder before using. Add oak … Read more

Onion skins impart a warm golden tone to fabrics, especially wools and animal fibers. On cotton and other plant fibers, the color yield is lighter. The addition of iron as a post bath will yield rich olive green shades. Onion skins also make a great abstract pattern when eco-printing. Fiber Preparation and Mordanting We offer scouring and mordanting instructions for wool, alpaca, silk (protein), cotton and plant (cellulose) fibers. Your fiber should be scoured and mordanted before dyeing. Extracting the Dye Use onion skins at 30% on the weight of fiber (WOF) for light yellows up to 100% WOF for rich golds. Add your … Read more

Pericón (Tagetes lucida) is a perennial marigold native to Mexico and Central America. It grows approximately 30 inches tall with a bushy appearance. The plant is used as a medicinal herb and has a strong sweet anise odor. The leaves of the plant are brewed to help with colic, digestive problems and also as a tonic for pregnant women. In the dye pot, pericón yields a soft yellow shade. When used as an overdye on light shades of indigo, it will create a light teal shade. Fiber Preparation and Mordanting We offer scouring and mordanting instructions for wool, alpaca, silk (protein), cotton and … Read more

Pomegranate is an aromatic dye that yields a green-yellow color and shifts to olive and dark gray with iron. Pomegranate can also be used as a tannin-rich mordant. Pomegranate peels are the leathery skins and seeds of pomegranate fruit. They are high in tannin and super useful as a natural dye. Fiber Preparation and Mordanting We offer scouring and mordanting instructions for wool, alpaca, silk (protein), cotton and plant (cellulose) fibers. Your fiber should be scoured and mordanted before dyeing. Extracting the Dye Use about 20% of the weight of fiber (WOF) of the peels for a medium green-yellow or more for richer shades. … Read more

We like to use rhubarb root on wool fibers but others have found it to be successful on cotton, linen and hemp as well. Use an alum or symplocos mordant for yellow shades. An iron mordant will create olive greens and an alum mordant with an iron post bath will create deep blackened olive shades. Fiber Preparation and Mordanting We offer scouring and mordanting instructions for wool, alpaca, silk (protein), cotton and plant (cellulose) fibers. Your fiber should be scoured and mordanted before dyeing. Extracting the Dye This powder has been ground from whole roots and is ready to be simmered in water for … Read more

Safflower has been used by dyers for centuries. It is a celebrated color in Japan and the petals contain both a yellow and a red dye. It is extremely responsive to pH shifts, which are used to extract both the yellow and a vivid orange-red or pink shade. It is not a very light or washfast color, but it is a lot of fun to see the beautiful shades develop. Safflower will produce the darkest shades if you use either equal weights of safflower and fiber or if you use twice as much safflower as fiber. However, if you have … Read more

Sappanwood sawdust is native to SE Asia and India and produces pink and red results. Fiber Preparation and Mordanting We offer scouring and mordanting instructions for wool, alpaca, silk (protein), cotton and plant (cellulose) fibers. Your fiber should be scoured and mordanted before dyeing. Extracting the Dye For a deep red color, use between 50 and 100% sawdust on the weight of fiber (WOF). We like to extract the color by simmering sappanwood sawdust in water for an hour, then letting it soak overnight. The next day, strain out the sawdust and reserve, then use the soaking water as your dye bath. You may … Read more