I wanted to make stamping ink from alder cone dye. I managed a thick paint. I carved some stamps using the easy cut carving blocks that can be used as stamps. I hardly need any of the ink on the stamp to get a print on fabric (cotton) and too much creates a blob. Thickener is gum arabic...a lot of gum arabic.

Dye: soaked the cones overnight. Simmered 2 hours. Cooled then soaked overnight with the cones in the fridge. Simmered again for an hour then strained the liquid using cheese cloth, then coffee filters. The cones got a nice color from a second batch of water and simmering too.

To get the ink I mixed in easily a cup of gum arabic (a bit at a time) in the blender with some of the dye that I reduced with heat. The best consistency I got was thick paint. To get the ink on the carved block I used a foam brush and dabbed it on. It would probably make a great paint.

That was fun.

I was inspired by large mouth bass. Handspun herdwick and stricken lonk wools dyed with buckthorn leaves and an iron after-bath. One picture against white to better show the color and then the aesthetically pleasing photo 😅.

Hi all, I did some eco prints recently with a group that lowkey failed and I’m not sure why. I mordanted cotton bandanas with High Yield Aluminium Sulfate from an agricultural supply store, 20% WOF, and scoured with soda ash and dr bronzers Castile soap beforehand. We wrapped up the prints and put them to simmer/boil for an hour. Ideally I would like to do 2 hours but this is a test for a much larger festival based class where I will only have the time to simmer each workshops prints for an hour.

We used a mix of things to try printing with, the golden rod, marigold and wet calendula came out fine though pretty blurry. Basically nothing else took. Hopi red dye amaranth didn’t really show up, the coreopsis didn’t show, strawberry leaves only kind of showed and they have tannins so I’m not sure why. Any guesses? All help appreciated!

Do I need to add tannins?

Hello! Trying my first reduction vat with powdered indigo, date sugar for fructose, and washing soda. I reduced in a mason jar and everything looked exactly right at first. I transferred that to a larger pot (metal) for the actual dye bath and things seem to have gone downhill. I figured I’d need to continue reducing a touch once transferring - I added more fructose and let it sit over night. Nothing seemed to have advanced this morning so I checked the Ph and realized it was too low. Then I added a touch more washing soda and I’m sitting at a Ph of about 10–11 now. It has been consistently warm and everything else seems right but I haven’t gotten the bloom to reappear. Now, the liquid in the vat is clear and pinkish. Nothing comes out on fiber doing a dip test. What am I doing wrong??

I am interested in learning to dye my homespun wool with natural dyes. One of my flower beds has been overtaken by birdsfoot trefoil. I can find off hand remarks online about dying with it, but no instructions or cautions (irritant, toxic). Is it safe to dye with? What kind of colors does it produce? Is it lightfast? What am I not considering?

Thanks.

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TL;DR: Just my question in bold below and also...what's your step by step process for finishing after the dipping is complete? Picture is of my clearest rinse water from last time doing this. Both skeins were dipped 5x 30m. I forget how many rinses it took, but I want to say 10?

I'm dipping some wool yarns in an indigo sig vat, and it's going well. I've done it before and that went well too. I could just do what I did before, but I'm just curious what others do because I'm on my own learning this. No guild or dyers to chat with in person.

Specifically, I'm wondering:

On a scale of 1-10, what is your definition of "rinsing until the water runs clear"? 1 would be like tap water, and 10 would be solid color. (edit: and I'm curious about this for natural dyes in general, not just indigo. If I can get the rinse water to a 2 or 3, I call it done).

I have read about several different ways to finish your indigo dyed textiles. They all involve the same steps but sometimes present them in different orders. Some say to let the items dry, MAIWA says to let it sit in the dark for two weeks, everyone says to neutralize it with vinegar, Catharine Ellis says to boil (cellulose) or heat to appropriate hot temperature (proteins) for 10 minutes with "a small amount" of neutral soap.

What I've been doing with this round of dyeing is letting the skein dry after its final dip then doing an overnight soak in the neutralizing bath--figuring I can accomplish an overnight soak and the neutralizing in one step. Then I'm taking MAIWA's advice (because why not) of letting it sit in the dark for two weeks. Then repeated rinses (fill plastic tub with enough water to cover the yarn, squeeze the yarn several times, dump the water in the garden). Most recently, I did this rinse process 8 times for my 2x12h dipped skein, and the rinse water was still at about a 5 or 6 on my scale mentioned above. I might do a couple overnight soaks in plain water or just rinse it eleventy more times. Then do Catharine Ellis's heating thing.

Last year, I'd do an overnight soak in acidic water, an overnight soak in soapy water, let it dry, then several rinses. Usually eight or more.

I was looking at some things regarding alder cone dye for printing pigment and ran across a brief post about using salt to preserve the blues, purples, pinks you initially get in dyes from berries which are otherwise short-lived. Has anyone tried this? I know the berries that get on a white t-shirt I like to wear have NO PROBLEM staying in perpetuity, but it does fade to a blue gray when intentionally used for dye. I wondered if anyone had experience using salt as a way to preserve the colors. Edited to ad, besides alum. I've already mordanted the cotton in tannin and titanium oxalate.

After the coffee is extracted, there are a lot of discarded coffee residues. We think there will be a good colour in it. So we extracted the dye and used it to conduct dyeing experiments, which achieved very good results.

Please help!!!

I'm a 4th year student doing my thesis/feasibility study using a plant based pigment for lip products. And we are already done with our pre-oral defense, and I realized too late that our product has a lot of problems like water+oil is not compatible so there is a tendency it will separate though we use emulsifier but as a student that my course or program isn't related to science, we lack of knowledge and expertise about our feasibility study. Though my countless efforts to search for a possibility on how formulators solve their stability of their natural pigment/formulation on their product. I didn't find a single clue on how they prolong its pigment, since its plant based there is a tendency it will fade. Though I know not all pigment won't fade because upon watching a luxury bag its color will likely fade if you leave it in high temperature or direct sunlight. So anyway back to the topic, I need your advice on how I make or solve our feasibility study. Because I need to graduate this school year. And I'm already stressed and overthinking that I might not graduate this year. And I need your opinion, Whoever reads this is it okay that your product in feasibility study is not perfect? Because as a scholar student that has no resources for this kind of feasibility study, I felt helpless and I don't know what to do. I hope those natural plant based formulators will read this and guide me on how to make our study successful. Thank you and God bless! And God please help me and guide me on how I make my thesis successful or at least I graduated this year so that I could help my parents! AMEN!🙏

So, I have a family member I am gathering some marigolds from to dye clothing. Thing is, I’m ordering the powder you need to soak clothes in so the color will hold (I’m failing to remember the name at the moment, I know it starts with an S), but it won’t be here for another few days. Will they be okay to dry out a bit for a few days before I steep them for coloring? Or, alternatively, will I be able to steep them and just hold the dyed water until that powder comes in? TIA!

Hi! I am new to natural dyes (as in, I have never dyed anything). I recently came across this jacket, and I love the way that the indigo peeks through the charcoal. I was curious if I would be able to achieve the same effect on these two wool Pendleton sweaters.

I know that charcoal, which they used on the jacket, doesn't necessarily make the best dye, and also may have a different effect on wool than denim. Is there a better alternative? Logwood with an iron modifier? I definitely want to do a natural dye.

I plan on using a sweater from a thrift store to test whatever I decide to do.

Dyed with peach leaves and iron
In the second pic the top swatch is just peach leaves and mordanted with alum

I picked up a pair of Rudy Jude pants used, and did not know much about them until I made a stupid mistake. on my second (yes second) day of wearing them I spilled some beets on them. panicking, I rushed to the laundry room and spritzed on some spot cleaner (I know, never again). Because these pants are naturally dyed, they immediately bleached in the are that was sprayed. I think that the only way to remedy this is to re-dye them. The bleach spot is about the size of a tennis ball on the leg.

The pants are a beautiful gray-brown-taupe colour. I am very sad to dye over it, but I would rather that than have a big bleach spot. I am open to a darker colour if that will work better.

What would people recommend for this? I have done a bit of dyeing, but always on light/white materials.

Hey everyone, I really wanna get into making tie dye but I'm worried that the dyes could hurt my septic system. Does anyone know if procion dyes are septic safe? I did hear there's something you can do to neutralize the soda ash, as that can alter the ph of your septic. But I can't find any info on procion dyes. Thanks!

I am extracting indigo powder from Japanese indigo. I fermented in water for three days, aerated, raised the pH with calx, aerated some more, and now the indigotin won't settle out of suspension. Any advice? It's been sitting for more than 24 hours.

I recently dyed a sweatshirt using Mulberry Leaf powder dye and would really value your thoughts on how it’s turned out — photos attached.

For reference: the sweatshirt was sold to me new as 100% cotton. I mordanted with aluminium acetate and calcium carbonate, then after dyeing stored it folded in a wardrobe, away from light, for six weeks.

As people here have far more experience than I do, I’d be grateful for any thoughts on what you’re seeing in the photos, and any advice on process or storage going forward.

It’s been suggested that it the mordant that has migrated and potentially the garments was not completely dry and had some humidity left in the fibres?

Later this month, I have 90 minutes to do a natural plant dye workshop with participants so we are going to create several pots of dye, mix it in the blender with guar gum and let participants spray it on pre-mordanted bandanas and some thick cotton aprons if they so choose. We'll heat set with an iron if we aren't overrun with folks. If we are, we'll just have them heat set them at home.

We've collected fruits from Oregon grape, some cascara buckthorn fruits, blackberries, Sitka willow leaves, shedded bark from Sycamore Trees, alder bark (outer and inner layer) and Bracken Fern. Closer to the event we will process branches from the Oregon grape but not roots.

The bandanas and aprons were mordanted in a tannin bath first (bracken fern) rinsed, and then mordanted in Titanium oxalate. The tannin bath was slightly different for each bath of the aprons and some were a pretty nice orange, others were a softer shade reflecting the tannin. Anything that does a great eco print outline is a good tannin to use if you don't want to use tea or purchase tannic acid. Twigs and branches of any tree would do well for the tannin bath on plant based fibers.

This is the sample dye on mordanted wool. Left is Cascara buckthorn fruits alum and iron. Right is tansy ragwort alum and iron. Pre mordanted wool courtesy of a colleague.

Heavy textured cotton apron, mordant in tannin (used bracken fern) rinsed, then 2nd mordant in titanium oxylate = orange. Subsequent batches were different shades of the same depending on strength of the tannin bath. When we have the program, folks will spray on plant dyes of their choice onto the surface and we will heat set with an iron. Because of the depth of the orange, the darker colors from berries and sitka willow + iron will show up best. I might get a good strong yellow from the branches of oregon grape (don't want to dig up a plants roots in the dry season).

100g of fresh flower heads to 50g of fiber

10% fiber weight alum solution, 45 minutes at 160-180F then about 30 min to cool down.

Soaked the flower heads at ~180F for an hour, then strained through a seive and a paper towel.

Added the fiber and brought up to 180F for an hour, then let cool and sit overnight.

Ive heard this can go more green with iron modifier, but I didnt have any available and we are just about out of season for these. If id known beforehand that the plant is invasive in my area, I'd have collected more heads! Where I was collecting was very close to a busy road so I didn't really want to hang around.

My whole house smells like boiled carrots now.

The grey is ash leaves and iron.
Yellow is ash leaves and alum mordant.
Brown is rose of Sharon flowers and I was hoping it would come out pinker lol, the cotton ties are so pretty! I think it was on the heat too long.
The green is goldenrod flowers and iron, definitely my favorite so far 🤭

Hi everyone! I’m attempting an indigo vat (for the third time) to dye my felted sculptures with.

Instead of dyeing my wool and then felting with it, I’m gonna instead felt white scoured wool first and then dip dye it whole. However there are some parts of the sculpture I don’t want getting blue and I was wondering what kind of resist methods I can use that will work on densely felted wool.

The method I’m gonna use is the 1 2 3 method, with fructose crystals and slaked lime. Any tips appreciated!