Eager to plunge into the wonderful world of natural dyeing? Explore our natural dyes below. Including some organic options!
12 products
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.
Colourfastness: 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
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.
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.
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 is a natural dye wood from Central America, used for producing blues and purples on wool, black on cotton and wool, and black and violet on silk.
Logwood is PH sensitive.
It is called by old dyers one of the Lesser Dyes because the colour was said to lose all its brightness when exposed to the air.
Colour fastness: poor
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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.
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
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.
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
MYROBALAN ~ a tannin used for (pre) mordanting cellulose (Cotton, Linen) Fibres. Recipe below.
ORIGN: India
Myrobalan is a very common tannin used in India and around Asia. It creates a plum-like fruit from various trees of the genus Terminalia, formerly used in medicine as a mild laxative and now used in the dyeing industry.
Myrobalan creates butter yellow on fabric, like most tannins. Tannin is important for mordanting cellulose fibres like cotton and linen. Alum alone is not a suitable mordant for cellulose fibres and its use will produce inferior colours.
Myrobalan can be used in print, over dye with indigo for teal, use as a stand alone colour or as a mordant.
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Recipe Downloadable PDF for creating Greys and Charcoal
Basic recipe for mordanting cellulose fibres:
A 2 step process, please read through the entire instructions first.
Step 1:
Ingredients:
10% Myrobalan (10% of the weight of fabric (w.o.f.))
1.Fill a plastic or stainless steel vessel with hot water (40-50 d. Celcius/100-120F) to a 30:1 ratio (water:fabric)
2. add tannin and stir until dissolved or evenly distributed
3. add fabric, immerse fully for 1-2 hours. The bath will cool down, which is totally fine. Stir occasionally.
4. use rubber gloves when removing fabric, squeeze fabric. Rinse very lightly or better spin it out using a centrifugal spinner or washing machine. Tannin is bound to the fibre only by affinity and can be removed if rinsed aggressively.
5. save mordant for future use.
6. don't let it dry before moving to the 2nd mordanting step.
Step 2:
Ingredients:
Alum 12% (w.o.f.) Dissolved in enough boiling water, cool.
Soda Ash 1.5% (w.o.f.) Dissolve in enough boiling water, cool.
1. Combine the two solutions while stirring. It will bubble, so make sure your vessel is big enough.
2. Bubbles will subside quickly and you should be left with a clear liquid. Add additional hot water as described above. Follow steps 3 - 5 from above.
3. Rinse the textile well, to make sure any unattached mordant is rinsed off.
4. The textile may be dyed immediately or dried for future use.
Tips:
*Too hot and the tannin will oxidize, which is fine, if you want a potentially darker colour. For overdyeing, it is best to keep the colour as light as possible.
** You can also use cold water instead of hot, but it will require a 12h soak at least.
***Any tannin can be used with this recipe, but for lighter results use Oak Gall or Tara.
Enjoy!
POMEGRANATE PEELS ~ CUT & GROUND ORGANIC ~ can be used as Tannin and as yellow dye
The pomegranate is a fruit-bearing deciduous shrub in the family Lythraceae, subfamily Punicoideae, that grows between 5 and 10 m tall. The pomegranate originated in the region extending from Iran to northern India and has been cultivated since ancient times throughout the Mediterranean region.
Colourfastness: good - excellent
Recipe:
For how to mordant your Cellulose fibres, please see my blog post
How to mordant linen and cotton fabrics successfully – AppleOak FibreWorks
If you are using protein fibres, a simple 10%Alum bath will do for mordanting, but protein fibres can also be dyed without a mordant when using Pomegranate peel due to its tannin content.
Once mordanted:
Add 100% pomegranate peel to 80degrees Celcius Water for one hour. (100% of the dry Weight of your Fibre/Fabric) If using powder, stir regularly or it will burn the bottom of your pan.
After an hour, switch of the heat and add the fabric/fibre. Leave to up to 3 days, until desired depth of colour.
Wash, rinse, dry.
Pomegranate Powder can also be used as a tannin and for printing when combined with Alum and Guar Gum.
CATECHU DYE ~ Dye Colour Brown and Beige
Catechu, or better known as Cutch, is a powdered dye which results in beautiful brown tones. It can be used for Cotton, silk and wool Fiber.
Cutch contains two dyes, catechu-tannic acid, which is soluble in cold water, and catechin, which needs hot water to dissolve.
*Catechu is apparently very good for eczema.
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Basic Recipe
200gr wool (mordant optional see note below)
20gr of Cutch extract made into paste with boiling water (keep on adding, tends to be sticky)
Add to dye pot (hot water) and simmer, stir regularly;
Add the wool and simmer for 1 hour, leave overnight. The longer, the deeper the colour of the dye.
Leave wool out to oxidize before rinsing.
*Several more skeins can be added later for lighter colours. Catechu is difficult to exhaust
**mordant wool with Alum for brighter results, but it will also dye a nice browns without any mordant.
***use Iron for darker results
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.
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