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Fugitive Natural Dyes: Top Five Plants to Never Use for Natural Dyes
Red Cabbage, one of the fugitive natural dyes (creative commons Rick Heath) Many people say that they never use natural dyes since they are fugitive and don’t last. Well, it depends entirely on what...
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Colourfast natural dyes: how to test any natural dye for fastness
freshly dyed indigo samples ready for a colourfastness test You want to know if a common plant is a good natural dye. How do you tell? There are three criteria which a natural dye needs to have to be...
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Natural dyes: Preparing your woolly canvas
Coloured wool will impact natural dye colour differently than white wool. Experiment! No matter how good your natural dyes are, the colour will be impacted and changed by the natural fiber you choose...
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Woad is me: Blue Monday
Woad indigo, complex colour on simple weave I did not know that there was actually a day named “blue Monday” but apparently today’s the day. As part of today, I would like to share with you part of the...
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Compost Colours: Five Natural Dyes from your Compost Pail
Direct contact dyed silk scarf with woad seeds and retrieved natural dye items. Natural dyes can be fun, but they can also become expensive. Logwood, Indigo, Cochineal, and Weld… the list of high...
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Natural Dyes: Resist and Conquer
Natural variation in natural woad indigo scarf Have you ever dyed a skein of yarn, only to find that the ties were too tight and you had a white line? I have, but, I’ve also deliberately naturally dyed...
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Tips for Using Naturally Dyed Fibres and Yarn
Material dyed with natural dyes sometimes requires different treatment than material dyed with conventional dyes. Both natural and synthetic dyes form chemical bonds with the fibre, however the bonds...
View ArticleBook Review of Indigo, Madder, and Marigold by Trudy Van Stralen
While many fields have dozens and dozens of how-to books and information readily available online, the field of natural dyes does not. There are a few good, relevant, and recent books, though many of...
View ArticleNatural Dye Tutorial: Direct Contact Dyeing
Experiments are one of my favorite things to do with fiber and natural dyes. It is always exciting to unveil something, and not have a clue what it will look like because it was all an experiment. It...
View ArticleCapturing the Fall Palette in Natural Dyes
Fall is officially here, in more ways than one. Sparking golden in the falling leaves, swirls of gold and red as the wind whirls the leaves into mini color flurries. The frosty white from the morning’s...
View ArticleThe Woad to a Sustainable Blue Part 3: Advanced Dye Uses of the Woad Plant
One of the fun things about natural dyes is being able to use the natural dye plant to its full extent. Which can often include creating an extra dye vat after your initial dye vat is completed, at...
View ArticleThe Woad to a Sustainable Blue Part Four: The Modern View of Woad
While woad is a beautiful and complex natural dye color, the plant itself has several prejudices against it. It is a vigorous plant, that will self-seed, and its healthy taproot can make it difficult...
View ArticleFive Techniques to Test Any Plant for Natural Dye Color
Almost any natural dye book will tell you what the common natural dye plants are, what colors you can get from them, and the method to employ to do so. However, no matter how well-tested a method you...
View ArticleBook Review: Simple and Natural Soapmaking
Natural soapmaking? What does that have to do with natural dyes? Well, it can interact with natural dyes in one of two ways. You can use natural dyes in natural soapmaking for interestingly colored...
View ArticleNatural Dyes: Resist and Conquer
Have you ever dyed a skein of yarn, only to find that the ties were too tight and you had a white line? I have, but, I’ve also deliberately naturally dyed twisted skeins to get variegated colours. The...
View ArticleTips for Using Naturally Dyed Fibres and Yarn
Material dyed with natural dyes sometimes requires different treatment than material dyed with conventional dyes. Both natural and synthetic dyes form chemical bonds with the fibre, however the bonds...
View ArticleBook Review of Indigo, Madder, and Marigold by Trudy Van Stralen
While many fields have dozens and dozens of how-to books and information readily available online, the field of natural dyes does not. There are a few good, relevant, and recent books, though many of...
View ArticleNatural Dye Tutorial: Direct Contact Dyeing
Experiments are one of my favorite things to do with fiber and natural dyes. It is always exciting to unveil something, and not have a clue what it will look like because it was all an experiment. It...
View ArticleCapturing the Fall Palette in Natural Dyes
Fall is officially here, in more ways than one. Sparking golden in the falling leaves, swirls of gold and red as the wind whirls the leaves into mini color flurries. The frosty white from the morning’s...
View ArticleThe Woad to a Sustainable Blue Part 3: Advanced Dye Uses of the Woad Plant
One of the fun things about natural dyes is being able to use the natural dye plant to its full extent. Which can often include creating an extra dye vat after your initial dye vat is completed, at...
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