I haven’t tried most of these, but have heard that they produce colour. If you have had success with any of these dyes please let us know by posting a message to our Forum
Strawberry Blight
Latin: Chenopodium capitatum
Low lying plant with leaves spaced far apart. Where the leaf joins the stem is a cluster of bright red fruit. Use the juice of the berries for a pink/purple. Try vinegar to set the dye, or an alum mordant.
Avocado
Scrub the peels clean. Add to bath of vinegar and cream of tartar. Rosey gold. Add premordanted wool (alum)
Also try avocado pits.
Avocado Pit Dye Vat
Dyeing with Avocado Peels and Pits
Purple Cabbage
Mordants:
Alum – yellow, beige
Ammonia – pale green
Tin – lavender
Vinegar – pink, lilac
Afterbath: add washing soda dissolved in boiling water
turquoise
Black Birch
Simmer birch bark in dye bath. Add mordanted wool. Simmer.
Colour: pinkish beige
Colors and Dyes in Early Russia
Hollyhock berries
Colour: pale yellow.
(or sometimes blue!)
Hollyhock: Greenish side of Blue
Coreopsis Tinctoria
Use 1 1/2 cups of flowers per dye bath.
Mordants:
alum – antique pine
iron – dark brown
copper – chestnut brown
tin – gold
Delphinium Blossoms
Colour: sage green
Horseradish leaves
Geranium Leaves
Simmer with rusty nails or in an iron pot.
Colour: dark grey
Willow bark
Colour: Coffee cream Choke cherry
Colour: pink
Dyeing with Willow Bark
Natural Dyes – EBay Watch
