We get mordant questions all the time at Botanical Colors so why not create Mordant Monday??? Got mordanting questions? Email [email protected]
YOU ASKED: I am looking for something to dye 100% wool. I mostly eco dye and not familiar with dyeing wool. I’d like to do several colors to make penny circles. I have a whole bolt of the wool. Can you recommend something for color and mordant? (My wool has been scoured.)
KATHY ANSWERED: Since penny circles are fairly small, you have a lot of options to make some lovely color combinations. A small amount of fabric – something along the size of a fat quarter – will give you many, many colors for your project.
Cut a whole pile of fat quarters (or smaller) and weigh them dry and mordant them with aluminum sulfate. As an example, madder extract will make several shades of red, orange-red, salmon and pink and blush if you use the exhaust baths. You can do this by starting with a strong dye bath as we recommend under our table of natural dye extracts. After you’ve dyed one or two pieces of mordanted wool, then you can use the same dye bath and put in fresh mordanted fabrics to get a lighter shade, and repeat the process until you have a range of colors. You can then move to another color, like a gold, or bright yellow, or orange or other shades. Since you are experienced in eco printing, you can also eco print the wool fabric and use those fabrics for your penny circle projects.
Wait, what is a penny circle? Go here.
Interested in sampling with a wide range of colors and doing what Kathy says above? Try out our new Botanical Colors Beginner Dye Kit and experiment!