Natural dyes

[Clara]

Does anyone have any experience with natural dyes?

Right at this moment I have a ton of mulberries, when I´m sick of making jam thought I might try dyeing something. I´ll also have a ton of walnuts soon.

How do you use them? How do you "fix" them? Can I dye woollens with them?

Clara x.

[Clara]

Found this....

http://www.pioneerthinking.com/naturaldyes.html

But doesn´t tell me how much plant material to use....still be glad to hear anyone´s wisdom on the matter.

[chadspad]

My Mum tried using beetroot the other day with several items of clothing. She said they all turned a lovely pink colour but as soon as she rinsed the colour came out completely. She obviously needed a fixer

[Thomzo]

I remember putting sheets out to catch the mulberries when I had a tree. From what I remember they started out bright red but soon faded to rusty brown when they were washed. I didn't try to fix the colour though as I was trying to get rid of it.

Zoe

[Silver Ether]

Natural Dyes I did this for else where ... so just cut and pasted it ...
Try out on some fabric that doesn't matter before dyeing your fav T-shirt :o
Don't forget the rubber-gloves :)
Colour list
Pinks and Reds
Red Onion Skin, Madder Root, Cayenne, Beetroot, Rose-Hips

Yellows and Oranges
White Onion Skin, Calendula, Carrots, Turmeric, Golden Rod

Greens
Nettles, Carrot-tops, Grass, Bracken, Lily-of-the-Valley

Blues and Purples
Red Cabbage, Elderberries, , Blueberries
Cherry (roots), Red Cedar (root), Woad

Blacks and Browns
Walnut-shells, Tea-Bags, Coffee, Juniper berries, Iris (root)

Tip: Flowers should be in full bloom, the berries and nuts should be ripe.

The fabric will have to be soaked in a fixative before dying, this will help the dye to set. There are two ways of doing this:
Salt Fixative: - for berry dyes
a) 8 tablespoons of salt to 4 pints of cold water
Vinegar Fixative: - for plant dyes
b) 4 parts cold water to 1 part white vinegar

Method for Fixing:
Add fabric to the fixative in a large saucepan and simmer for one hour. Remove and squeeze out excess fixer. Rinse in fresh water until water runs clear.

Preparing the Dye:
1. Chop the plants into small pieces and place in a large pot. Add double the amount of water to plant stuff. Bring to boil, then simmer for about an hour.
2. Strain well, and return liquid to the pot.
Now add the damp fabric to the dye. Simmer together until the desired colour is obtained.

Remember the fabric will dry a lighter shade, also home-dyed material is best washed in cold water and seperate from other clothes.

[eccentric_emma]

somewhere, i heard that urine was used as a fixer in medieval times - anyone shed any light on this?

[Clara]

Thanks silver ether - very comprehensive! I want to dye a off-white colour woolen shawl - not sure I should do it at high temperature, what do you think to low temp dyeing?

Emma - I seem to recall that stale urine was used to clean clothes....

[Annpan]

I saw an Adam Hart-Davis programme about this... but too much of it slips my mind now.

The salts in the urine are used, I think that you mix it with something else...(OH thinks it could be lye???) to make saltpeter?? or a similar sustance, anyway when they started mining saltpeter it put an end to this basically. There used to be public containers in the street for collecting the locals urine (hmmm.)

I dare say there is something out there on the web with better details but that is what I remember from the show...don't quote me on it though...

[the.fee.fairy]

On the same vein, i was watching Tony Robinson!!

They were using stale urine to take the lanolin out of wool before ti was felted, and out of some woolen linen to fix the fibres.

Does anyone know where to get woad from? I love the colour it produces!!

[Eigon]

Urine was used as a bleach in Roman times - there's a scene in The Silver Pigs by Lindsay Davis where the hero, who lives above a laundry, is asked to pee in a bucket on the way past, so the laundry could get round the tax Vespasian put on collecting pee.

I'm part of a historical re-enactment group, and we always tell red headed boys to save their pee! For some reason it's the best fixant for woad, and dyers would pay red headed boys and men for their pee. The drawback was that they weren't allowed to drink alcohol while they were collecting it - if they did, it turned the dye flourescent green!

[the.fee.fairy]

Not sure if i fancy collecting red headed boys' wee...

[Clara]

Not sure if i fancy collecting red headed boys' wee...

Certainly wouldn´t put it on your CV under "hobbies".....

[Silver Ether]

Thanks silver ether - very comprehensive! I want to dye a off-white colour woolen shawl - not sure I should do it at high temperature, what do you think to low temp dyeing?

Clara I havent dyed any wool ... been desperate to have a go but not got hand on any untreated stuff ... what I have found is this

http://simmy.typepad.com/echoesofadream ... eing_.html

She has dyed raw wool so I would imagine following the same instructions would be fine ...It takes time to load ...

Wash the shawl carefully as washing instrutions of the shawl first ... errrrrrrrrr is it precius or are you just in need of a change ...

[Wombat]

I have a book called "Ancient Dyes for Modern Weavers" by Palmy Weigle, 1974 Watson Guptill Publications, USA, which isn't bad. It covers walnut hulls and leaves but not woad or mulberry.

Nev

[Clara]

Feedback.....

Well I followed the instructions to the letter, using the salt fix and half a bucket of mulberries. The shawl went a lovely pink, then I rinsed it. Back to beige Perhaps I should have used a stronger mordant, or perhaps wool is difficult to dye. Pain in the a$$ though.

Still have lots of mulberries round these parts so I might make an experiment with a small piece of cotton to work out what happened.

Walnuts I read you don´t need a mordant for - is that true?

Clara x.