natural dye recipes Archives - Botanical Colors

yellow-green fabric in a stainless steel dyepot

Making Green with Logwood and Weld

It’s not often that you can combine yellow and purple to make green, but weld extract and logwood will yield interesting results, depending on the strength of the weld and logwood combination. We have tested this on wool and our recipes are as follows. Feel free to experiment with other fibers and proportions of dyes! Chartreuse Use 3% weld on the weight of fabric (WOF) and dissolve in hot water. Do not add any auxiliaries such as calcium or soda ash. Measure and add 0.25% WOF logwood extract to the weld and stir well. Add this mixture to a dye … Read more

Three Color Ideas For the Start of Autumn

Here’s a palette with natural dye recipes suitable for that end of summer transition where the light turns golden and the air cools. The Orange Red reminds us of the underside of a liquid amber leaf; the Bright Olive is a neutral, gray-green, and the Creamy Beige is surprising in that we don’t often think about dyeing light tan shades, but this one is easy and elegant. Orange Red (on silk fabric) 15% Aluminum sulfate mordant 4% madder extract Bright Olive (on cotton muslin) 5% Aluminum Acetate mordant 5% pomegranate extract 2% marigold mix extract 1%rich logwood purple Creamy Beige … Read more