Feature
| NATURAL DYES
1 2 3
11
Red Dyes
Cut Madder roots, Brazilwood (fades to brown), Cochineal,
Saffl ower (fades to pink), Ladies’ Bedstraw, Dyers’ Woodruff
BY BECKY SKUSE
and St John’s Wort

Yellow Dyes
Weld, Dyers’ Greenweed, Coreopsis, Chamomile fl owers,
Rhubarb, Saw Wort, Tansy, Dock, Eucalyptus, Goldenrod,
Onion and Yarrow

4
Blue and purple dyes
10
Woad, Indigo, Japanese Indigo, Alkanet, False Alkanet
and Logwood
9
Black dyes
Logwood and iron
5
8 7
6
Most mordants are used on the fi bre will look green, but after a short time, it (Above) Different dyeing materials:
before the dye process, with the mordant magically turns to blue as it reacts to the
1. Madder root pieces and the red and
orange yarns it produces.
dissolved in water and then wet yarn oxygen in the air. Indigo is a great place to
2. Indigo dye and yarn dyed with it.
soaked in the mordant bath for anything start natural dyeing, because the process is 3. Beautiful colours of the indigo vat.
up to 48 hours. After mordanting, the yarn so simple.
4. Fabric emerging from the indigo
vat is green and slowly turns blue
has to be pinned up to dry before dyeing
5. Rustic-looking brazilwood chips.
and Teresinha Roberts leaves the yarn for DIFFERENT DYES 6. Fabric artwork dyed using
at least a week before dyeing it, to improve The natural world is rich in plant
brazilwood (red) and logwood (navy) .
7. Lac powder and the variety of red
the fastness of the dye. materials that can be used for dyeing and
fabric colours dyed with it.
Some mordants can be used in the dye experimentation is a big part of the fun! 8. Eucalyptus or bluegum plant,
bath itself, or after dyeing, such as iron. Amanda Perkins says: “In theory, you could
which produces orange shades.
9. St John’s Wort flowers produce
Cheryl Kolander says: “Iron is often used be experimenting for the rest of your life!
green, maroon, brown and yellow.
to modify other colours as an after-dye Around 70% of British indigenous plants 10. Safflower was used to dye the
application. Iron will turn gold to moss yield colour, mostly yellow but there are
red cotton tapes of legal documents,
hence the expression ‘Red Tape’.
green, red to plum and maroon, and brown plenty of other colours, so the possibilities
11. Dyer’s camomile flowers for yellow.
to darker brown.” are endless.”
The unique exception to the mordant So a full rainbow of colours is possible
Photos 1-4 and 7 by Cheryl Kolander
for Aurora Silk www.aurorasilk.com
rule is indigo, which has its own special using natural dyes. Teresinha Roberts
Photos 5, 6, 8-11 by Mike Roberts at
fermenting process. When the yarn or says: “In the UK, you can grow woad for www.wildcolours.co.uk
”
fabric emerges from the dye bath, it blues, madder roots for reds, weld for acid
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www.insidecrochet.co.uk
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IC2.feat.Natural Dyes.FINAL.indd 29 12/5/09 16:09:03
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