Madder Dye Cut or ground ~ Dye Colour a variety of reds including orange, browns, reds, brick red, blood red and fiery reds.

*Collected in the Wild of Iran

The colour depends on a variety of conditions, like the soil the roots where grown, their age, the mineral content of the water used for dyeing, the temperature of the dye pot, and how much madder you use in relation to fiber. Many dyers suggest mordanting the wool just with alum and not to use cream of tartar as well, but that is your own choice and why not try to experiment a bit? Like with any dyeing, you will need to soak the fiber overnight or for a few hours before adding them to the dye pot for both hot and cold dyeing. You can dye with madder either cold or with heat; some dyers use chalk or cream of tartar to get better reds.

Colour fastness: Excellent

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Recipe for Wool: Downloadable PDF 

Recipe for Plant fibres: Downloadable PDF

Also available as dye kit!

Basic recipe:

(You can adjust the amounts as needed)

100 grams dried madder roots (soaked overnight and blended if possible or use ground)
100 grams mordanted (Alum) fiber (50 grams for darker reds or 300 grams for lighter colors)
7 to 10 liters of water
6 grams calcium carbonate (chalk) or cream of tartar, if using

Soak the roots in the dye pot over night
Bring o 65 degrees Celsius for one hour for reds, higher temp. will go more brown
Strain through cloth
Add yarn and dye bag to dye pot
Keep on 65 - 95 degrees Celsius for one hour

**IMPORTANT: The higher the temperature the darker the colour.

Oak Gall - harvested from the wild in Turkey 

Oak Gall, also known as oak apple was and is still used for making ink. We use it as a fibre Mordant, due to its high tannin content. Unlike other tannin, it doesn't stain the fibre.  

Oak Gall is available as whole, cut or ground.

Organic natural Indigo ~ Dye colour Blue 

[our Indigo is NOT synthetic]

Country of Origin: India 

The advantage in dyeing with Indigo is, that no mordant is needed.  The water doesn't need to be heated to more than 40 degrees Celsius and a little goes a long way. We can dye 3-4 kg of Wool using 50g of Indigo. 

There are many ways of dyeing with Indigo. Below you will find the recipe for a yeast vat.  For a straight forward no-waiting-required approach, you can use Hydros as an oxygen remover. Waiting time approx. one hour.

Colourfastness: Excellent for dark colours, good for lighter colours

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Basic Recipe ~

It is possible to create a vat from indigo, lime (calcium hydroxide) and over-ripe fruit such as bananas or dates that relies on the chemistry of the sugars* rather than fermentation of the fruit. But it’s easier to simply use fructose shared in

Our Organic Sugar Vat Recipe

Or for a more lightfast solution go for the recipe below or for a quick Vat, use the Hydros Vat, but it does use a chemical oxygen remover.

Our Hydros Vat Recipe

Both recipe are also available as dye Kits

FERMENTATION USING YEAST:

For 500gr wool etc. at one time . (amount can be repeated several times using the same bath)

 9l water

dye container with lid
separate pot for the water bath to add the container
110gr sugar
50gr dried yeast with out preservatives etc.
30gr bicarbonate of soda
40gr ground Indigo
thermometer

This Method requires the dye bath to be on a constant 40 degrees Celsius and shouldn't exceed 50 degrees Celsius. Ideally put the dye pot in a water bath on a wire rack to ensure even distribution of temperature. 

1. Fill pot with 9l of water and heat to 40 degrees Celsius. 

2. Mix sugar and yeast and add to the water. Leave until dissolved and bubbly. 

3. Dissolve soda in a glass with hot water and add the dye, stir until smooth. Add to yeast mixture. 

4. Close lid and ideally put into a bin bag, you want it as air locked as possible. Leave at steady temperature for 8 hours. 

5. Lift lid and stir carefully until all the foamed Indigo has returned into the dye. Try to stir as little air into it as possible.

6. Close the pot up again and leave for 48 hours until the water is yellow green.

7. The water will show a metallic shimmer on the surface when ready. Carefully stir it back in.

8. Add the damp but not mordanted wool etc. make sure all are under the water add a plate or a metallic disc to press the wool etc. under the surface. Whatever swims at the top will be unevenly dyed.

9. Close it up and leave for 6 -12 hours. 

10. Remove wool etc. and press out back into the dye bath.  

11. Open wool etc. and leave exposed for at least 60min. All should turn blue. 

12. If you prefer a deeper blue add it to the dye bath again and repeat step 9. 

13. Wash twice with a mild soap, then rinse 4-5 times using vinegar in the last bath. 

14. Hang up and air for a few days or weeks. 

You can repeat this dyeing process using the same dye bath several times.

LOGWOOD ~ Available Cut or ground and as extract* 

(Bois de Campeche, Campeachy Wood) 

*Collected in the Wild (foraged) in Haiti

Logwood Dye is a natural, PH-sensitive product derived from wood found in Central America. This versatile dye is commonly used to produce vibrant blues and purples on wool, as well as deep blacks on both cotton and wool. It can also create a striking black and violet colour on silk. However, its colour fastness is considered to be poor by experienced dyers, leading to its classification as one of the Lesser Dyes. Logwood Dye is often used in combination with other dyes for black dyeing purposes.

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Basic Recipe: 

65g bark, soaked in water for 2 days.

100g mordanted yarn/fibre (Alum 10g)

 Bring pot with dye to simmer For 2h.

Strain through cloth, add yarn/fibre and dye bag to dye bath for 1h.

Rinse.

The logwood chips should be put in a bag and boiled for 20 minutes to 1/2 an hour, just before using or soak overnight, bring to the boil in the morning for 1h, strain and bind into bag.

* When using extract you only need to use 5-10% of the weight of your dry fabric. Logwood is one of the more excessive dyes - a little goes a long way - especially when using extract.

Organic *ground, **cut or whole Hibiscus flowers 

Cultivated in Egypt.

When using ground Hibiscus, use 50% of dye, according to the weight of the dry fabric/fibre for a light purple hue on wool and deep pinks or green with various mordants. For cut or whole Hibiscus, use 75-100% of dye based on the weight of the dry fabric/fibre. Colour fastness is poor and purple tones may shift to green, if exposed to high levels of pH.

PH sensitivity makes it a fun dye for children's activities and hobby dyers, who don't mind colour shifts or poor fastness.

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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 pH and mordant: yellow brown, green with iron and pink with Soda Ash.

Country of Collection: China

Rhubarb is a remarkable plant, known for its large size and delicious stalks and roots that can be used to create three beautiful colors. However, it is important to note that only the green and yellow shades will maintain their colour due to the high tannin content.

Colour fastness green and yellow: Good

Colour fastness pink to red: Poor

Ph sensitive - high Ph will turn colour to 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 or
15% Soda Ash

TARA POWDER ~  is a natural tanning product

Grown in the mountains of Peru.

Tara powder will stain the fibres grey and it is recommended to use a strong dye so the colour isn't too influenced. I am using it for plant dyed flax fibres and LinCot yarns and found, that it actually adds some more depth to the colour.

Basic Recipe:

Please see our blog post on How to mordant linen and cotton fabrics successfully – AppleOak FibreWorks

LAC DYE ~ Dye colours violet to red to brown

Lac is a powerful dye and probably mostly know in relation to the Tibetan Monks' Tunic - all dyed with Lac. It doesn't have the brilliance of cochineal red, but a much more mature red, like wine.

*Lac is the scarlet resinous secretion of a number of species of lac insects, of which the most commonly cultivated species is Kerria lacca.

**Cultivation begins when a farmer gets a stick (brood lac) that contains eggs ready to hatch and ties it to the tree to be infested.[1] Thousands of lac insects colonize the branches of the host trees and secrete the resinous pigment. The coated branches of the host trees are cut and harvested as stick lac.

The harvested stick lac is crushed and sieved to remove impurities. The sieved material is then repeatedly washed to remove insect parts and other soluble material. The resulting product is known as seed lac. The prefix seed refers to its pellet shape. Seed lac which still contains 3–5% impurities is processed into shellac by heat treatment or solvent extraction. (Wikipedia)

Colourfastness: good- - excellent
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Basic recipe:

3-5% Lac
wool (no mordant needed)

use 10-15% ALum, if using more than 5% Lac

Dissolve lac in warm water and add to dyepot.

Add wool (always wet) to dye pot and bring to a simmer.

leave for one hour.

One bath can dye several skeins of yarn.


Add wool to the dye bath simmer for one hour.
Let it cool and leave in dye bath overnight.

Rinse and dry.

Lac dyed yarn benefits from a vinegar soak for 20min after rinsing.

Dried (non-organic) Walnut Shells Ground ~ Dye Colour golden and dark Browns

*Walnut Shells powdered harvested in the wild of Macedonia 

Walnut shells or husks are used for plant dyeing Wool and Silk. Preferably, you would like to use green Walnut husks, the dye colour brown is more radiant, but not everybody has a Walnut tree in the back garden, so try these dried shells instead.

IF you do have a tree handy, do collect the green husks and freeze them. You can use them as a dye without any need to fix the colour due to the tannin content.

If you use the dried husks, I would suggest to use a mordant, too. But do try without it, you might like the result!

Colourfastness: good

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Basic recipe:

100% of Walnut shells
Wool (Mordant not necessary)

Soak the shells overnight
Simmer for 2 hours
Strain through cloth.

Add wool to the dye bath simmer for one hour.
Let it cool and leave in dye bath overnight.

Rinse and dry.