Weld and Woad are historically important when it comes to natural dyeing. It’s a peculiar quirk of natural dyes that no one dyestuff produces a good, true green. The only way to achieve green is by overdyeing a yellow dyed yarn with a blue. For centuries weld and woad was the go to combination in…
Copper mordant. Why not? Plus it’s something I haven’t tried until now for dyeing wool. Alum and cream of tartar is my go to mordant, being easily available and non toxic. I have used copper as an afterbath occasionally, but only on previously mordanted yarn where the change to the colour compared to using iron…
Natural dyeing adventures never stop. Yellows aren’t hard to obtain. But really good yellows are still to be prized. Here we have the traditional versus the modern. Meadowsweet Filipendula ulmaria is a common plant of field margins, hedgerows and waste ground. It is perennial, with long, strong stems of richly scented, frothy creamy white flowers…
Since starting on this natural dyeing adventure several years ago now, Woad dyeing was always a major goal. There is so much history and tradition (especially in Britain) tied up with woad as a dyestuff. Economically it was an important crop for centuries, protected by restrictions on imported indigo in Elizabethan times. It contains the…
Christmas Stockings – well they have to be red don’t they! And when it comes to natural dyeing nothing does red like cochineal. Cochineal is expensive, it always has been. Highly prized for centuries as producing the best reds for textile dyeing. When it arrived in Europe following the Spanish conquest of Mexico it was…