I've not dabbled very much in playing with dye, let alone playing with natural dyes! The concept is interesting to me, and I know that there are plenty of things that I either grow already or can collect very easily. I've read a few things about dyeing online, Ty gave me a book about natural dye plants, & I've checked books out from the library a few times. Right now I have
A Dyer's Garden by Rita Buchanan,
A Weaver's Garden by Rita Buchanan, and
Dyes from American Native Plants by Lynne Richards and Ronald J. Tyrl.
I am mordanting some of my handspun yarn (a skein of Merino and that skein of
Coopworth that I just finished) to dye them with some of the things growing in my yard! Or in a park that isn't too far away. I'm using alum and cream of tartar as my mordants. They seem to be the easiest mordants to find - both you can find in the baking aisle of the grocery store with all the spices.
I'll be using some Black Eyed Susan flowers to dye the Coopworth, and sunflowers to dye the Merino. The Black Eyed Susans are from a local park. I filled a grocery bag with flower heads and I'm pretty sure that there's no way to tell I was even there... There are bushes of these flowers all over that park! The sunflowers are from my own yard. They are starting to die back a little bit now, like some of the heads are done for the year. They have been great for bee attraction, I want to see how I like them for dyeing too! I also have some marigolds in the garden that I'm itching to use as a natural dye. I actually saved some of the marigold heads from the garden last year to dye with, but I haven't had the courage!
Have any of you done any natural dyeing? Any tips for the whole process for me? Anything I should keep an eye on?
I like natural dyes also. this week I also dyed with black eyed susans. it makes me laugh how black eyed susans color turn out completely opposite of what you would expect. the flowers give a green color and the leaves give a yellow.
ReplyDeleteI also use alum as a mordant because I figure it is less toxic than copper or iron. cream of tarter isn't a mordant but it enhances or brightens the color.
It's so fun to see what colors things turn, isn't it?!
DeleteAh, I kind of assumed that the cream of tartar was necessary because it's part of the recipe in the "Dyes from American Plants" book together with the alum. Now that really makes me curious as to what the black eyed susans would end up being with and without the cream of tartar! I can see having another experimental thing going on with that... :D