More Natural Dye Plants

An assortment of plant dye recipes

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 Facebook Group

handspun

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

Red Cabbabe Socks

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

More Natural Dyes
Madder
Sandalwood
Osage Orange
Logwood
Cochineal

Natural Dye Books
Wild Color, Revised and Updated Edition: The Complete Guide to Making and Using Natural Dyes
Botanical Colour at your Fingertips
The Modern Natural Dyer: A Comprehensive Guide to Dyeing Silk, Wool, Linen and Cotton at Home
A Weaver’s Garden: Growing Plants for Natural Dyes and Fibers

The Rainbow Beneath My Feet: A Mushroom Dyer’s Field Guide
Harvesting Color: How to Find Plants and Make Natural Dyes
A Heritage of Colour: Natural Dyes Past and Present by Jenny Dean (2014-06-10)
Wild Color, Revised and Updated Edition: The Complete Guide to Making and Using Natural Dyes
The Art and Craft of Natural Dyeing: Traditional Recipes for Modern Use

Author: Paivi Suomi

I've had an interest in weaving, looms, yarns and textiles since I was a small child. I learned to knit, crochet, sew, do needlepoint at my mother's knee. My grandmother was a Saami from northern Norway. I am very interested in studying more about traditional Saami and Finnish style weaving and handicrafts. Paivi Suomi