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dyeing

Basic colors

John F Dean

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Let’s say I want to dye cotton cloth….say basic colors..red, blue, yellow, green. What plant do I need to put in the ground?

….give me coffee to do the things I can and bourbon to accept the things I can’t.

Judith Browning

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Location: Ozarks zone 7 alluvial, clay/loam with few rocks 50" yearly rain

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Plants plural?

Madder, indigo or woad, and weld.
Weld overdyed with indigo will produce your green.

I've not dyed cotton with madder so not positive?

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May Lotito

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Do you need the color to be fast? You will have much more choices if the fabric is just for indoor display.

Zone 6, 45 inches precipitation, hard clay soil

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John F Dean

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Hi May,

Yes, I would like for it to be fast. But, for now, my wife and I are experimenting.

….give me coffee to do the things I can and bourbon to accept the things I can’t.

r ranson

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Will depend on the climate. Here are a few I saw walking around my garden.

Yellow
Broom flowers, weld, dandelion flowers, st johns wart, oregon grape

Red
Madder, some temporary reds from berries. Woad seeds give pink. Arbutus bark is a great one for linen and sticks well even without mordant.

Blue
Woad and indigo are the main ones

Green
Rhubarb leaves (no mordant needed, but helpful), nettles, carrot tops although this can sometimes give yellow instead.

With cotton, "dying" it with some sort of tannin like from oak leaves helps to make the mordant stick. Three baths for longer lasting colour: Tannen, mordent, dye

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homegrown linen | crazy chicken lady grows yarn!

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Matt McSpadden

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I think you can make blue from siberian pea shrub leaves. Not sure what color. Indigo is probably easier :)

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May Lotito

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Welcome to the club! Raven already listed the common plants for different colors. Various yellow and orange flowers are easy to work with. True red has limited choices besides madder. But don't be discouraged by the less stable nature of anthocyanins, satisfying results still can be achieved with some tricks. For me it's important that the plants will grow easily and produce abundantly in your area. Just pick various flowers and leaves and test. Maybe you will find something unique.

I just washed some home dyed linen napkin samples to test the fastness, as I don't actually use and throw them in the washer. I will post the pictures when they are dry. I have to buy madder roots and indigo powder for now but my locally sourced plants also give a wide color range.

Zone 6, 45 inches precipitation, hard clay soil

Anne Miller

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This sounds like fun ... planting a color garden ...

Invasive plants are Earth's way of insisting we notice her medicines. Stephen Herrod Buhner
Everyone learns what works by learning what doesn't work. Stephen Herrod Buhner

May Lotito

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Colors are off from indoor light but they show the soft hues from natural dyes.
Dye materials include: madder, goldenrod, tickseed sunflower, purple corn husk, indigo, golden aster, sumac, iron

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