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How to Dye with Osage Orange.

Osage Orange
Maclura pomifera
Osage Orange comes from a tree native to Arkansas and Texas. Its wood makes a clear lemon yellow dye.

Time Required: 12 hours

  • Use clean, premordanted wool or yarn.
  • Measure the Osage Orange chips or sawdust (25% - 100% WOG) into a nylon stocking and into small dish.
  • Add water and allow to sit overnight.
  • Pour the stocking and the water into dyepot filled with hot water and simmer for 1 hour.
  • Add premordanted fibre or yarn into the dyepot and simmer for 1 hour.
  • Allow the dyepot to cool.
  • Remove the fibre or yarn from the dyepot, rinse and let dry.

    • Tips:

  • Try alum or tin premordants.
  • Try overdyeing the osage orange with other colours such as indigo or logwood.

    Wool dyed with Osage Orange
    Alum Mordant    		Cotton/Hemp Dyed with Osage Orange
    Alum/Tara Powder Mordant

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