ORGANIC JUNIPER BERRIES ~ Culinary use, dye colour yellow, ochre and brown
Wild Collection
Origin: Albania
Treasured for its berries in gin making and culinary dishes, the small tree grows in a wide range of habitats. Both berries and leafy branches can be used for dyeing. Crushing the berries before dyeing helps to extract as much dye as possible. Or if you have an apple press, you can squeeze them out after extraction and add the pressed liquor to the dye pot. Autumn browns and earthy ochre yellows are produced when adding a bit of Iron, otherwise it will be a sandy yellow colour.
Colourfastness: low
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Basic Recipe:
100% berries
10% Alum
Mordant yarn by dissolving Alum in hot water, add yarn and leave overnight.
Extract dye, by adding to pot and bring to 85C for one hour. Strain.
Rinse mordanted yarn.
Add yarn to dye bath, heat to 85C for 1hour or leave overnight for a deeper colour.
Rinse and dry yarn.
*You can change the colour to ochre and browns by adding 3% Iron.
