Natural Dyes

NATURAL DYES!
Carol, Lelan, Robert and I spent 2 days learning all about natural dyes. Using only 5 different dyes we were able to create the entire rainbow of colors!



This is the mordant bath of Alum and cream of tartar. The yarn is first soaked in the mordant bath and then the dyes actually bond to the mordant, rather than the yarn. So the mordant gives our dyes sticking power!

Leisel, our natural dyes guru and patient teacher!

Osage Orange - gives us beautiful golden yellows

Logwood - creates deep midnight blues on its own and purples when acid shifted.

Madder Root creates bold bright oranges!

This is the cochineal bath. Cochineal is an insect (dried and ground up in the coffee grinder - gross!) Cochineal has been used by indiginous cultures around the world to dye skin, fabric, and even for painting pictographs on walls.

Cochineal is amazing because depending on how you shift the pH balance you can achieve a wide range of colors from pinks, fuschias, and reds to oranges and purples.

INDIGO!

Ok, I'm not going to lie... indigo is my absolute favorite!
It is totally different from any other dye and I always thought it seemed so intimidating. But, Leisel de-mystified the entire process! The indigo vat actually starts off a grass green.

The yarn is submerged into the vat for 3 minutes.

When it is pulled out of the vat the indigo oxidizes as it hits the air.
It changes from green to blue in a matter of minutes right before your eyes!
Its MAGICAL!

Here is Lelan pulling out overdyed skeins. We tooks yarn that was first dyed with Osage Orange (yellow) and another dyed with Cochineal (red) and dipped them into the indigo vat to achieve greens and purples!

Carol and Lelan turning the indigo skeins to allow them to oxidize evenly.

Here are our finished yarns hanging to dry. Using only cochineal, osage orange, madder root, logwood, and indigo we created the most beautiful rainbow of colors!