Last Updated on April 6, 2018

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

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
Harvesting Color: How to Find Plants and Make Natural Dyes
Harvesting Color: How to Find Plants and Make Natural Dyes
Natural Dyes
Botanical Colour at your Fingertips
A Weaver’s Garden: Growing Plants for Natural Dyes and Fibers
Eco Colour: Botanical Dyes for Beautiful Textiles
Wild Color, Revised and Updated Edition: The Complete Guide to Making and Using Natural Dyes

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