COCHINEAL DYE ~ Dye colours red, pinks to purples

Origin: Canary Islands, Spain. Organically farmed and processed by Canaturex ~ www.canaturex.com

I am so delighted to have finally found some organic Cochineal. Lorenzo is one of the very first offering organic fully traceable Cochineal.

Cochineal is a powerful dye - made from small insects feeding of cacti. The reds and pinks created from this tiny insects are astounding and breathtaking. From deep rich full bodied reds to light fairy like pinks can be created by only one dye bath. 

Cochineal will always dye pinks on plant based fibres.

*Cochineal is the small insect, of which the most commonly cultivated species is Dactylopius. The body of the insect is made of 19–22% carminic acid.

**It takes about 80,000 to 100,000 insects to make one kilogram of cochineal dye. The two principal forms of cochineal dye are cochineal extract, a colouring made from the raw dried and pulverized bodies of insects, and carmine, a more purified colouring made from the cochineal.

Colourfastness: Excellent
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Recipe for Wool Fibres: Downloadable PDF

Recipe For Plant Fibres: Downloadable PDF

Basic recipe:

6% Cochineal
Wool yarn mordanted with Alum 10%


Soak Cochineal in Water overnight
blend using a stick blender

Add dye to dye bath
Bring to a simmer
Remove any black tar like bubbles

Strain through a cloth and keep to the side
Add yarn to bath simmer for one hour.

Add dye bag to second and any following dye baths.

Organic *ground, **cut or whole Hibiscus flowers 

Cultivated in Egypt.

PH sensitive, not wash or light fast. Great fun with kids or for hobby dyers. 

For a light purple colour on wool and deep pinks or green, using different mordants. 

*Use 50% of dye according to the weight of the dry fabric/fibre you would like to dye when using ground Hibiscus. 

**Use 75-100% of dye according to the weight of the dry fabric/fibre you would like to dye when using cut or whole Hibiscus. 

Colourfastness: poor
Ph sensitive: purple colour turns green with high Ph

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Hibiscus Dye Recipe wool ~ Downloadable PDF

Basic Recipe: 

This dye will need a mordant, Alum, when dyeing wool. 
10-15% of Alum. 
Mordanted fabric or yarn, 50% - 100% hibiscus dye. 

RHUBARB ROOT ~ Dye Colour depending on: yellow brown, green with iron and pink with Soda Ash.

Country of Collection: China


Rhubarb is indeed a stunning Plant – not only does it grow enormous – we can eat the stalks for desserts and use the leaves for mordanting fibre and the roots for creating 3 gorgeous colours.

Colourfastness: Good

Ph sensitive - high Ph will turn colour to a red
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Recipe for wool fibres: Downloadable PDF

Recipe for Plant Fibres: Downloadable PDF

Basic recipe:

100% cut Rhubarb or 50% ground Rhubarb
Wool (mordanted with Alum)

Optional:
3-5% Iron
15% Soda Ash

Glossy Buckthorn Bark Organic ~ Dye colour yellow golden, pinks and reds. 

*Collected in the Wild of Bosnia

To achieve reds and pinks, the PH needs to be increased to 10-11 (alkaline).  Keep in mind to always use PH neutral soap with PH sensitive colours. This dye gives a good green when iron is added and was used traditionally to make artist paint.

Colourfastness: Good

Ph Sensitive Dye

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Basic Recipe: 

65g bark, soaked in water for 2 days. 
100g mordanted yarn/fibre (Alum 13g)

Bring pot with dye to simmer For 2h.  
Strain through cloth, add yarn/fibre and dye bag to dye bath for 1h.  
Rinse.