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DYES FROM PLANTS
Seonaid M. Robertson

From The Library of:

Donal 7. GAcAiarnen
G16 Senator Norn

ara VAN NOSTRAND REINHOLD COMPANY

NEW YORK CINCINNATI TORONTO LONDON MELBOURNE
The work illustrated on pages 15, 82, 113, 115, 117, 118 (Numbers 13 and-14), 119
(Number 19) and 123 is by students of the author’s course at the Department of Art
Education, Pennsylvania State University. To this Department, and to all the stu-
dents who contributed so much to this course, the author feels deeply indebted. The
frontispiece is by one of the students in this course, Steve Grout.

The illustrations on pages 57 (Numbers 9 and 10), 118 (Number 15), 119 (Numbers
16, 17, and 18) are by students of the author’s course at the University of Washing-
ton, Seattle, for those whose enthusiasm and inspiration thanks are also due.

The following herbal illustrations are reproduced from Handbook of Floral Orna-
ment from Early Herbals, Richard G. Hatton, Dover Publications, 1960; anchusa,
apple, barberry, bilberry, broom, cherry, cotton, day lily, dog’s mercury, dyer’s weed,
ivy, larch, marigold, Norway maple, poplar, ragwort, tansy, walnut. Indigo and
logwood are reproduced from History of the Vegetable Kingdom, William Rhind,
London, 1857. The balance of the illustrations, with the exception of those listed
below, are reproduced or redrawn from Theatrum Botanicum, John Parkinson, Lon-
don, 1640.

The following illustrations were drawn by Merle Nacht; big-bud hickory, black
huckleberry, bloodroot, bracken, brasilwood, butternut, coreopsis, cutch, dahlia,
goldenrod, hemlock, mahonia, mountain laurel, onion, osage orange, pokeweed,
prickly-pear cactus, pyracantha, reeds, rudbeckia, silver birch, smartweed, snow-
berry, turmeric.

Madder was supplied by C.I.B.A., Basel, Switzerland.

Color illustrations 11 and 12 photographed by John Hunnex.

Color illustrations 1 through 7 are used by permission of Everyday Art magazine.

Copyright © 1973 by Litton Educational Publishing Inc.

Library of Congress Catalog Number 73-178173
ISBN 0-442-26974-9 cloth
ISBN 0-442-26975-7 paper

All rights reserved. No part of this work covered by the copyright hereon may be
reproduced or used in any form or by any means—graphic, electronic, or mechani-
cal, including photocopying, recording, taping, or information storage and retrieval
systems—without written permission of the publisher. Manufactured in the United
States of America.

Designed by Visuality

Published by Van Nostrand Reinhold Company, A Division of Litton Educational

Publishing, Inc., 135 West 50th Street, New York, N.Y. 10020.

16m 1S 1413" 12) i 109) 8% 7) 655) 4

Contents

Introduction 7

1. Introduction to Dyeing 11
Preparing Fibers for Dyeing/ yy Table of Measures/General
Information for the Dyer/Washing Fibers /Dyeing/Rinsing/Labeling/The
Simultaneous Method of Dyeing

2. Mordants 24
Preparation of Fibers before Mordanting/Procedure/Mordants for Wool

3. Dyeing In Every Season 32

Obtaining Depth and Variety of Color/Color Fastness/General Principles
for Dyeing with Flowers/General Principles for Dyeing with Berries/
General Principles for Dyeing with Barks/General Principles for Dyeing
with Leaves/ Recipes for Spring/Recipes for Summer/ Recipes for Autumn/
Recipes for Winter/Recipes for Plants Used in Several Parts

4. Dyes of Historic Importance 72

Cochineal/Madder/Woad/Indigo/Logwood/Safflower/Fustic

5. Dyes for Cotton, Linen, and Silk 87

Scouring Cotton/ Bleaching Cotton and Linen/Mordanting Cotton and Linen/
Recipe for Spring/ nent.for Summer/ Recipes for Autumn/ Recipes for
Winter/Some Dyes for Silk

6. Top-Dyelng 96

7. Lichen Dyes 99
General Notes on Collecting Lichens/General Principles for Dyeing
with Lichens/ Boiling Water Methods of Dyeing with Lichens/ Fermentation
Method of Dyeing with Lichens

8. Using Dyed Fiber 109

Stitchery/Weaving/Knitting and Crochet/Knotting and Plaiting/
Tie- Dyeing /Warp-Dyeing

9. Planting a Dye Garden 125

List of Suppilers 130
Bibllography 132
Index of Plants by Color 136
Index of Dye Recipes by Plant Common Name 140
Index of Dye Recipes by Plant BotanicalName 142
Table of Measures 144
Introduction

Men and animals share the earth with plants and are dependent on them. It
was the spread of minuscule green organisms over the hard, starkly barren
surface of the cold dead earth that prepared it to be the home of man millions of
years later. These tiny organisms thrust powerful microscopic roots into the
fissures of the rocks, breaking them up further; their creeping tendrils spread
through the pockets of dust in the hollows, thus holding the particles together.
As they died they provided humus for further generations of green to take root.
Gradually, a green haze must have spread over the gray rock of the continents,
and, over millennia, bigger and more complex plants developed and carpeted the
valleys, holding moisture to feed more plants. Among these very early
inhabitants of our globe was a fernlike tree of which we still have a miniature
edition — the horsetail, which provides us with a greenish dye.
This basic interlocking of men and plants through food is as fundamental
today as it ever was — for when we eat animals or birds or fish we are eating
flesh that was, far back in the food chain, formed from eating plant life. We
however are unlike most animals, some of whom, like the silkworm, subsist on
one plant: one of the marks of our sophisticated life is the variety of our raw
food. We eat many types of root vegetables and leafy vegetables, the unripe
flowering heads of cauliflower and broccoli, the unripe seeds of peas and beans,
ripening fruits both cultivated and wild, such as blackberries and wild grape.
From many of these, whose intrinsic colors make them more appetizing, we also
get a textile dye — as we do from the last two. Sometimes we color food with a
different plant, for instance, rice with saffron — which also dyes fiber. Another
mark of our sophistication is that we flavor and preserve our food with spices,
and among those of the temperate zones, nasturtium and tansy also give good
dyes.
We have made spirits and wines from all of the main staple foods — maize,
rice, and wheat; then there are plants that are themselves mild stimulants, such
as tea and coffee, both producing mild dyes. We have found medicinal plants
with beautiful names, like sarsaparilla and ipecacuana, and plants that yield
pain-killing drugs such as cocaine, long known to the Brazilian Indians, and
hallucinatory drugs, such as hashish and opium. All these strangely differing
properties men must have discovered from countless generations of experience.
The furniture in our homes is so familiar to us that we tend to forget that
wood was once a growing plant and that men from primitives to pioneers have
used it for the structure of their houses. Roofs are still thatched with reed or
palm, while osiers and rushes have served for lightweight containers such as
baskets and cradles. We are still relatively dependent on timber in building, and
some contemporary architects, such as Alvar Aalto in Finland, have made a
special feature of wood in domestic architecture, using its curves and grain with
echoes of traditional ship-building techniques. We may admire the subtly
different shades of cut wood ripening over the centuries in cedar shingles or
rosewood furniture, but the dyes we get from wood — with the exception of
brazilwood whose heart is the source of the historic red dye — usually come
from the bark, as with logwood and fustic and our own apple, cherry, and birch.
It was only because plants offered men a floating, flexible substance that they
were able to explore the water which bounded their lands. From the first
hollowed-out log, the first papyrus boat on the Nile, to the timbered caravels
that discovered the New World, from the osier coracle that brought Columba
and Christianity to Scotland to the coracles still used in Ireland today, plants
have carried men oceanwards to new experiences. The traditional range of
European dyes, many of which are still used, was enormously extended by the
discovery of dye-trees in Central America.
Ships that could sail the Atlantic — along with the growing science of
navigation — opened up the dye trade of the seventeenth century, and
supplemented the European range with the blue-purple of logwood and the red
of brazilwood. The explorers found these great trees growing as natural forest,
but from much earlier times, in Asia and Europe, plants have been cultivated
specifically for their dye properties, especially indigo, madder, woad, and weld.
One chapter of this book deals with cultivating a personal dye garden.
Other uses men have made of plants include bark cloth beaten thin and
flexible, bark and raffia torn into thin strips for weaving and plaiting, jute and
hemp twisted into cordage, and above all cotton and linen woven into cloth that
was dyed almost as early as textiles were known.
Plants were also used in staining the skin. European aristocrats traveling
incognito camouflaged their fair skin with walnut, and it is still one of our firmest
dyes. The Romans who invaded Britain reported that the natives covered
themselves for battle with a blue dye — almost certainly woad, still used by the
occasional home dyer, and grown commercially for many centuries in Britain.
Other plant dyes are used by New Guinea and South American natives today in
traditional body patterns that identify them as one of their tribe.
 The desire to beautify ourselves appeared early in human history, and palettes
for cosmetics and the remains of rouge are found in early tombs. We know that
Greek women dyed their hair with a plant called thapsus (Thapsia asclepium),
which also dyed wool yellow, and buckthorn (Rhamnus species) was almost
certainly used as a yellow hair dye.
Knowledge of dyes was probably handed down from mother to daughter and
from wise woman to village flirt. In the English New Herbal of William Turner
(Herbals were books of herbal remedies common from Elizabethan times)
in 1551, we find of marigold: “SSumme use to make theyr here [hair] yellow
with the flowre of this herb not beyng content with the naturall colour which
God hath given them.”’ This leads us straight into the modern cosmetic industry,
which still uses many vegetable salves and dyes. But of course the herbals are full
of uses for plants in the borderland between cosmetics and medicine. For
instance, the Anglo-Saxon Leechbook of Bald prescribes, “for sunburn boil in
butter tender ivy twigs and smar therwith.” There are also fascinating uses that
lie between medicine and religion, such as fumigating with herbs, which is
closely linked to the use of incense. Rituals in the gathering of herbs (such as the
instruction to gather vervain with the left hand when neither sun nor moon is
shining) survived from the worship of nature deities, in which so much of later
science had its origin.
Trees and plants occur repeatedly in the myths by which men have sought to
explain their life on earth. In Indonesia, where myths hold that men first grew
from trees, the dead are returned to the branches of trees for burial. Among the
Andamanese, a platform is erected in a tree and the body is placed there in
burial — but only in the case of men dying in the prime of life. Trees were
associated with oracles. The great oak of Dodona was constantly tended by
priests, who slept beneath it. Most trees live longer than men do, so they seem
natural receptacles of wisdom. The Buddha found enlightenment beneath the Bo
tree, the Druids worshipped in groves — one could enlarge indefinitely!
Particular species of trees came to have symbolic meaning to different
cultures. The Assyrian palm tree, constantly recurring in their art, was a symbol
of vitalistic power related to the moon and the moon-goddess. The ancient
Greeks decorated their vases and their temples with plant forms, especially the
vine, and they danced at festivals with vine leaves in their hair. The vine, which
lived on in the wine, was a symbol of indestructible life that passed into the
Christian religion and persists in the Eucharist still: “I am the true Vine, drink
of My blood.’ Some of the wild vines of American roadsides are suitable for
wine and make a purple dye, so the plant has another form of perpetuation.
The Tree of Life was and is an archetypal symbol in innumerable cultures.
Men have seen in the renewal of bare trees the hope of resurrection (as in the
legend of Joseph of Arimathea, who thrust his thorn staff into the ground at
Glastonbury and it continued to flower each year). Finally, when the tree has
been cut down and the log trimmed, it may turn (as the myth of Osiris tells) into
a coffin-boat to carry the body to new life on strange shores.
But the symbolism of plants and the use of them for dyes meet in a unique way
in what are perhaps the most superb of all human artifacts — Persian carpets.
‘‘Paradise”’ is the Persian word for an enclosed garden, and in the cold days of
 winter the silky depths and rich patterns of the carpets hanging on the walls
must have sustained their owners with a visionary hope until the trees came to
blossom again. Our knowledge of earlier Persian gardens is obtained from the
“garden carpets,” which represent in plan not only the fountain in the center and
the fretted walls but all the plants and trees, with loving precision. Here we can
recognize the delicacy of the tulip, the carnation, and the rose, the boughs
weighted with fruit, and the vigor of the waving cypress tree, the Persian symbol
of eternal life, all knotted by human hands into a vision of paradise.
I have visited the Victoria and Albert Museum more times than I can count,
but it was only on my last visit that I went specifically to look at and try to
identify the dyes. On my way to the hall of Persian and Turkish carpets, I turned
aside to pause momentarily in front of some of my favorite pieces — a fragment
of a Peruvian shirt, some Coptic graveclothes, a medieval cope, an Elizabethan
bedspread embroidered with spring flowers. Suddenly I was struck with wonder.
I realized that almost all the marvelous colors in the acres of this rich museum
were dyes from plants because, of course, chemical dyes were not invented until
the mid-nineteenth century. How different would the whole place look if there
were only the uncolored textiles! The art of extracting colors from plants has
inspired men and women to weave patterns and embroider pictures that enrich
life beyond telling.
In searching for wild plants or tilling the fields and tending cultivated ones, in
learning their habits and properties, men have made yet one more link with the
environment in which they live, learning to use it and to extract, without
destroying it, that element of color which has so much enhanced their lives and
still enriches ours.

10
1. Introduction to Dyeing

The commonest textile material in North America and Europe in earlier days
was wool because the largest part of these areas is suitable for sheep-rearing.
This is in contrast to India and much of Asia, where cotton and silk were more
appropriate for wearing apparel, and where the climate was suitable for planting
cotton and the mulberry bushes that feed silkworms. It is true that cotton
flourishes in the southern states of the United States and that small quantities
of silk are produced in the United States and Europe, but in both the traditional
fiber is wool, and the plant dyes that were developed over the centuries by our
forefathers were mainly for that fiber. So this book is chiefly concerned with
dyes for wool, but a number of these will dye cotton and silk too, and some will
dye some rayons. (A chapter is devoted to cotton dyes because some dyers will
use cotton exclusively.) Some plants will dye raffia, dried rushes, and cane, used
by the American Indians in weaving baskets and mats, and some will dye the
porcupine quills loved by the Indians for decorating the pouches and garments
that they still use on ceremonial occasions. Quillwork was largely superseded by
beads, but some dye recipes from the Ojibwa, Menomini, Omaha, and others
remain. When you are preparing a dyebath for wool, it is easy to throw in
samples of all the fibers at hand to see how they react to that particular dye.
Few synthetic fibers will take plant dyes, but some mixtures dye in an interesting
way.
Wool can be dyed at many stages in the process of making a textile, starting
with the fiber that can be gathered from hedges and barbed wire fences, or is
bought or begged as a fleece or part of a fleece after shearing. If you buy even
part of a fleece, it is worth trying to “‘separate”’ it, gently fingering and dividing
the differing qualities, though to do this properly one has to be a professional of
many years. But even an amateur can feel the difference between the coarse

Li
 fiber of the rump and sides, the softer, shorter fiber of the belly, and the fine
silky hairs under the chin. If these are kept separate they can be used for
different purposes. Then again, each breed of sheep is different, and this is a
fascinating study in itself.
The colors obtained from a plant will of course be more apparent on the
common white wool, but dyeing on the mixed and dark natural wools also
produces beautiful, subtle colors. Paula Simmons, in the state of Washington,
dyes on all the natural browns of her husband’s various breeds of sheep,
producing a unique range of hand-spun wools.

PREPARING FIBERS FOR DYEING

If you dye wool as fleece, the scraps of dead herbage and thorns must be picked
out, and natural grease in it must be removed by scouring. To enable the liquid
to penetrate, the wool is lightly teased apart by repeated pulling outwards with
both hands, and this soft mass is immersed in warm, lathery water. The water
should be about hand-heat.
Soft water is much the best, and a rain butt, pool, or lake will provide this.
(Soft water feels gentle to the skin and lathers well. Hard water, which contains
lime compounds, gives a scum with soap substances, and when boiled deposits a
powdery white dust on the bottom of the receptacle. In time this deposit builds
up, forming a hard crust on kettles and pipes.) If only hard water is available, it
can be softened by adding a few teaspoonfuls (depending on hardness) of acetic
acid or, failing that, vinegar, to the gallon, or by using one of the commercial ~
water softeners. r
Soft household soap is still probably the best cleanser, and it is a good idea to
put aside scraps of soap too small to use and heat them up with a little water to
make jars of soft soap for this purpose. I have experimented in some dyes with
the new biological, or enzyme, washing powders (to which some people are
allergic) and have not found that they altered the colors much, but they might
prove to do so in other cases. In a craft that depends so much on traditional
knowledge, one might as well stick to the traditional soft soap until something
else is proved better.
Steeping and moving the fleece around lightly in plenty of water, rather than
real washing and squeezing, will prevent matting. Thorough rinsing in clear soft
water is essential, and then the wool can be spread out to dry on a clean sheet, or
dyed.
Not all of us can obtain wool in the fleece and have the fun of spinning or
tufting it, and most of my students have begun with hanks of wool from
Woolworth’s or with old part-hanks of knitting wool stored somewhere in the
house. It does not matter what the thickness or ply of the wool is, or whether it
is plain or fancy. For early experiments you can use old white knitted garments,
unraveled, washed and wound into skeins. In fact, it is a good idea to put into
the dyebath, in the early experiments, different types of wool, thereby building
up a stock of varieties in one color from which to choose when you come to
embroider or weave. Different types and mixtures of fibers will take the same
dye in slightly different ways and so produce a quantity of similar but varied

12
 = wh
shades. Many “wools’’ now have an admixture of man-made fiber to prevent
shrinking, and these strands may not take plant dyes or take them only slightly.
Wool with any oil in it must be scoured like fleece. All wools should be gently
washed in soapsuds and very well rinsed before dyeing.
Dyeing can also be done at the stage of the finished cloth, but to dye a
quantity of cloth evenly takes skill. The beginner will rather prefer to find out

i
first which plants do give dyes, and so build up a vocabulary of color. So, the
experiments here call for wool fiber, shop-bought or homespun or in the fleece.
To prevent skeins from getting tangled up in the dyebath, it is customary to tie
them loosely in one, two, or three places, according to whether they are very
short skeins of embroidery length or longer knitting skeins. (It is not possible to
dye balls: the dye does not penetrate to the center, so wool obtained this way
must be rewound in skeins.) Always tie the skeins loosely or the dye will not get A hank orskein tied up for the dyebath.
through and you will produce a “tie-dye” effect unwittingly. After knotting the
tie-thread to itself, leave one long end to hang over the edge of the pot — pull the
skein up by it to see how the dye is taking. This is for small skeins; heavier ones
are better threaded on a tape that is looped over the pan handles or to a cord
above.

EQUIPMENT

The absolute minimum of equipment for dyeing can be found in any kitchen, or
can be bought cheaply secondhand; the serious dyer will collect his special items
later. My greatest pleasure has come from dyeing in the open air, especially
near a lake or pool providing soft water, with a few bricks for a fireplace and a
line strung between two trees.
Vessels. For beginning experiments you will need one or more large boiling
pans, preferably of unchipped enamel (often known as “‘agate”’ or “‘marbled’’).
The best vessels for both dyeing and mordanting are steel, which does not
affect the color and is easy to clean. -But steel is expensive, and enamel (so long
as it is not chipped, because the iron underneath will affect the color) or
aluminum or galvanized iron can be used. Brass, copper , and iron vessels may
act as mordants (discussed in Chapter 2) and will modify the dye color.
The largest vessel that can be easily lifted is desirable. The minimum size is a
1-gallon container for 4 ounces (120 grams) of wool; one that holds 1 gallons is
better.
In addition to the pans, some pails (plastic, enamel, or galvanized iron) are
necessary.
Rods. For stirring, unbreakable stainless steel (cut from lengths of rod or fine
tubing) again is the ideal material, but glass rods are also excellent. For
beginners, lengths of dowel rod, peeled smooth sticks, or even the long handle of
a wooden spoon will serve. Wood will absorb some dye, however, so a different
stirrer must be used for each color.
If the rods have a bent end, they will not slip into the dyebath. Glass rods can
be easily bent at home by heating in a hot flame. If you use dowel rods, drill a
hole in the end, thread a wire through, and bend it to hang on the rim or handle
of the pan of dye.

13
 Sieves. A steel or cheap plastic kitchen sieve is best for straining, but muslin or
a nylon stocking stretched on wire as illustrated will serve. (Old stockings are
fine to hold the plant material too, and I just throw the whole lot on the compost
heap together, which saves a lot of cleaning up.)
A means of heating. For the first experiments, you can use the kitchen stove, a
camp cooker, or even a low fireplace. But when you come to handle larger
quantities, the height of a kitchen stove is awkward, and one or more gas rings
(bottled gas is suitable), electric rings, or hotplates at a lower level are
A sieve made ofa nylon-stocking toe stretched
over a frame of twisted wire. convenient. An old household wash-boiler is excellent. I just put a few bricks
together in the shed and use an old galvanized bath resting on them, with a pail
below the water butt to be warmed for rinsing, and a line hung above to save
carrying. In the kitchen, spread plastic or paper on the floor.
Water. You need plenty of soft water for the dyebath, at least a gallon to 4
ounces (120 grams) of wool. Rain water is best, soft lake or river water good.
Hard water can be softened with zeolite (a natural mineral product marketed
under various trade names, such as Calgon). In a hard-water district more soap
and more of the dyestuff are needed. Cotton does not need to be treated quite so
gently as wool in dyeing, so if only a smaller vessel is available, a little less water
can be used. Few beginners want to invest in baths large enough to hold the
minimum 4 gallons to dye or mordant a pound of wool or cotton.
A line to-dry on is necessary. It is also useful to have some means of
A page being prepared for a record book. The
stretching wool skeins — giving them a gentle pull and turn from time to time
edges are bound with clear tape, and the center
is reinforced with tape. The broken lines — while they are drying. If they are dried on a dowel rod hung on two hooks
indicate where folds are to be made. instead of on a line, this gives something to pull against, but many common
household articles, such as a sleeve board, will also serve.
A record book and tie-on or clip-on labels are important. If recipes are
written out, a tiny label can simply bear the number of the recipe; or a larger one
can bear the plant name and part, the date, time cooked, and mordant if used. A
useful method of keeping a record of all colors obtained, even with the tiniest
remnant, is illustrated here.
Measures. For weighing, a pair of household scales and letter scales or an old
chemical balance that measures quarters of an ounce and pounds or grams and
kilos will serve the dyer’s purposes. For volume, measuring cups with fluid
ounces marked off and the standard American measuring spoons* (use flat, not
heaped, spoonfuls) are needed. For small quantities a measuring cup or test tube
marked with 2 and_1 fluid ounce is also needed. Pour a gallon of water into a
The page in the record book. One side holds
the actual plant, dried, ina plastic bag, and/or large bucket and paint a line for a rough '2-peck measure and add another
a sketch or photograph of the plant in its gallon and another line for 1 peck: this is a useful measure for volume when you
habitat. Below this are details of its habitat. are working with bulky plant material.
Opposite are brief notes about mordant,
dyeing time, date, etc. Dyed samples are British cups and spoons come in all sizes, but American ones are standardized
knotted through the holes at the edge of the and can be purchased cheaply. A table of equivalents for the dyer’s use is given
page. By this method one can keep the on page 16 and at the back of the book.
samples folded inside the book so they will not
get dirty, but turn out the folded flap to have
When you use a chemical or letter balance, it is important to keep it on a flat
the relevant colors hanging out of the book surface and not to put the chemicals straight on the pan. The proper way is to
when needed. cut two squares of paper together from newspaper and put one on each pan (so

*Obtainable in Britain from Harrods, Knightsbridge, London.

14
 A student's record book.

that the same weight is added to each side). Then put weights and chemical on
the pieces of paper; lift the chemical on the paper.
Thermometers. You will need a dairy thermometer or a household
thermometer with waterproof markings,:and preferably long enough to reach
near the bottom of the dyebath. Either Fahrenheit or Centigrade will do; both
are given here.
A wringer is a great help when you dye or mordant large quantities of fiber.
Many people will want to wear a pair of rubber gloves, and I carry plastic
bags and rubber bands on all country excursions to bring home dye material I
find. Small pieces of muslin or old nylons stockings are used to make sieves or
for dyeing by the simultaneous method described later in this chapter.
Do not be put off by this list of equipment, which is for serious dyers. Begin
with what you have in your own kitchen on the basic recipes, and build up
gradually.

15
 TABLE OF MEASURES

Weight
1 ounce (oz) equals 28.349 grams (g), and | pound (Ib) equals .453 kilograms
(kg), but for our purposes the following rough equivalents are practical:
1 oz = 30g
% lb = 2508
1 lb = .Skg
2 1b= 1 kg
It is only in the measurements of chemicals that one needs even this degree of
accuracy. Whenever possible, measures are given in American teaspoons (tsp)
or tablespoons (tbsp) as well.

Volume
The British gallon, or Imperial gallon, contains 4 Imperial (40-ounce) quarts;
the American gallon contains 4 quarts of 32 ounces each. I have found this to be
just enough for dyeing 4 ounces of wool, but Americans should use a generous
gallon. The British cup is 10 fluid ounces; the American is 8 fluid ounces.
Because American and British liquid measures are different, I have tried to
avoid using fluid ounces and multiples thereof. I have, where possible, used
teaspoons and tablespoons, and so give their fluid-ounce equivalents here:
1 tsp=1/6 fl oz (1 European coffee spoon)
1 tbsp=' fl oz (1 European soup spoon)
2 tbsp=1 fl oz
For dry measure, I have given quantities in quarts (qts) and pecks (pks); the
difference between the American and British is so slight that I have not
distinguished between them.
I have totally ignored the metric liters, but for the convenience of dyers using
the metric system, the following equivalents may be used:
1 floz = 30cc
1 gal = 4% liters
1 qt (dry measure) = | liter
1 pk = 9 liters

GENERAL INFORMATION FOR THE DYER

The following terms are often used rather loosely so I define them as I have used
them:
Cold — cold to the touch, anywhere between 32° and 40° Fahrenheit (written
°F) or 0° and 5° Centigrade (written °C.).
Hand-heat — a little warmer than body temperature, but comfortable to the
touch, roughly 100°-120°F. or 38°-49°C,
Simmering — the temperature at which there is a slight continuous movement
on the surface, but few bubbles bursting, roughly 180° -200°F. or 82°-93°C.
Boiling— temperature at which water in every part of the liquid is briskly
bubbling and turning into steam, 212°F. or 100°C.

€
16
 The common practice in dyeing is to put the plant parts into cold, soft water
and heat slowly. All plants should be washed before use, as dirt or chemical
sprays may affect the color.
Berries are crushed or set aside in a warm place to “draw” their juice before
they are entered in the bath.
The dye substance is usually extracted while the temperature of the bath is
rising from cold to about 180°F. (82°C.), and you must always begin from cold
and not hurry this stage.When the water is at the simmer—that is, just below
boiling point—lower the heat and simmer for the time specified in the recipe. It
is a useful general rule that barks need long simmering or even boiling; fresh
leaves and flowers need shorter, gentler treatment.
A lid is not necessary, but it will prevent the steam and any smell from
escaping. (The exception to this is with chrome, which will be discussed in
Chapter 2.) If much water boils away, make the bath up to the original amount
with boiling water. Stir the bath frequently with a clean rod. When the dye has
been extracted, strain off the plant remains and throw them away, and return the
liquor to the pan.
When the liquor is cool or at hand-heat, the clean, thoroughly wetted fiber is
entered. The fibers must be clean and wet, or the dye will take unevenly: many
dyers always wash wool in soapy water and give it a final rinse in cool water just
before dying.

WASHING FIBERS
Steeping in soapsuds as described on page 12 is sufficient for slightly soiled
wool, but wool with oil in it or unraveled wool may need two or three steepings.
Whip soft soap or good soapflakes into a lather in hot water, and allow it to cool
to hand-heat. Immerse the wool and move it gently about a little rather than
scrubbing it; it may be left in until the water is cold. Rinse the wool thoroughly
in tepid water and squeeze it gently or put it through a wringer at light pressure.
Wringing or twisting it will felt the wool and make it take the dye unevenly.
Since the wool has to be wet when put into the dyebath, it can be kept wet
after washing if it is to be dyed within days. If not, then it must be thoroughly
wetted again. The best way to do this is to steep it overnight or for a few hours in
a bath of warm water and take it out to squeeze gently or put through a light
wringer 2 hour before dyeing. The wool can then be laid on a clean cloth while
the dye is prepared, which will help the dampness to spread evenly. As
fisherman and hill-climbers know, to their satisfaction, it is very difficult for
water to penetrate wool completely — the outside may appear soaked, but the
center resists the wet. The problem this useful quality presents to dyers can only
be overcome by really thorough soaking. When it is dried, wool regains much of
its resilence, and we appreciate its rain-resistant property.

DYEING
Wool and wool mixtures must be entered into cold water — that is, less than
hand-heat. Cotton can be put into a hotter bath and is usually boiled rather than
simmered. With silk thread, rapid boiling may tangle the fibers, so it is best to

ils
 dye it under about 200°F. (93°C.). It is a question of balancing the treatment of
the fiber with getting the strongest, fastest dye possible.
During the dyeing, the fiber must be ‘“‘worked”’ or moved about to dye evenly.
This can be done by gentle stirring, but with a large quantity of fiber it is better
to hang it on rollers or bent rods as illustrated. You can make rollers of cut
broom handle and roll them along the side of the bath to move the wool, but this
way all the wool is not immersed all the time. Bent steel rods or hollow wooden
A simple roller made from dowel rod and
wire. rods with wire through them allow you to move the wool around easily.
When the fiber is ready to be removed, lift it out on a rod and let it drip over
the bath for a few moments. This way the temperature is reduced gradually, and
you do not waste the dye or flood the rinse water with it.

RINSING

To rinse the fiber, have two or three pails of soft, clean water at hand—one hot,
one hand-heat, and the third cold. Rinse the fiber in each pail, squeezing the
water out over the pail. A wringer at light pressure can be used for large
quantities. Treat wool gently to preserve its soft, fluffy texture; cotton can be
treated a little less carefully.
Most colors get lighter as they dry, but a few continue to develop even after
the fiber has been taken from the dyebath. Fastness is often increased by leaving
the fiber in the dyebath to cool for as long as overnight, but this also darkens or
dulls the color. Sometimes the fiber is steeped in a chemical such as common
salt to deepen or set the color. This is called an afterbath.
4.s

LABELING

After thorough rinsing, as described above, the fiber should be labeled. It may
then be hung on the twigs of a handy tree in the breeze, or on a line, or on a wall
with drip papers underneath, or — best — on a rod supported by two hooks at
an open window over a sink, but never in direct sunlight until it is dry and set.
The rod enables you to hook your finger through the skein and give a gentle
stretch, especially good for wool, as the fiber dries. The ties made to keep the
Dyeing in an old-fashioned bath tub. This skein from unraveling in the bath may be left on if it is to be dyed in another
shows how the skeins on rollers are ‘worked’
in the dyebath. With the bent rods, all the fiber
color. A short length should be entered in your record book with a short
is kept immersed. description of the process used and the source of the plant.

The essential steps in dyeing with plants may be summarized as follows:

(1) Prepare the dyebath by heating the plant material in soft water until the dye
is extracted.
(2) Strain off the plant material, discard it, and return liquor to the pan.
(3) Cool the liquor to hand-heat or cooler.
(4) Enter the clean, thoroughly wetted fiber tied in skeins.
If you want to save time in experiments, put the plant substance into the bath
tied loosely in a bag made of muslin or an old nylon stocking and heat to extract

18
 3
These colors were obtained from various lichens.

A group of autumn dyes. These skeins of wool were dyed with elder, tansy ragwort, ; r
walnut, blueberry, onion, and other plants.

5
Wool dyed with madder, weld, walnut, and goldenrod. Wool dyed with walnut hulls.
 the dye. During the last 4 hour, put the fiber into a pan of cool water alongside
the dyebath and heat it slowly. Then the fiber can be transferred quickly to the
dyebath to simmer together with the plant material for the required time.
(5) Bring bath to the simmer and simmer the fiber for the required time, moving
it gently about from time to time.
(6) Remove the fiber on a rod and let it drip for a few moments over the dyebath.
(7) Rinse several times, preferably first in hot water, then in water at hand-heat,
then in cold water. After each rinse, squeeze the fiber gently to remove excess
water.
(8) Label.
(9) Hang in the shade to dry.

THE SIMULTANEOUS METHOD OF DYEING

In the case of plants that suffer with too much cooking (especially fragile flowers
and leaves and often plants that yield reds and yellows), it is better to put the bag
of plant material and the fiber into the cold bath at the same time and bring
them to the simmer together. I call this the simultaneous method of dyeing.
Because this book is intended to be used by beginners and those who are
interested in testing many plants for dyes, the quantities given in the recipes are
small. It is much easier to multiply for larger quantities of fiber than to divide
for smaller ones. Most people in their early days of plant dyeing will not want to-
work with the pounds of wool usually referred to in dye books, but with small
quantities for embroidery, toy-making, or experimental weaving rather than for
lengths of cloth. So, the recipes in this book are for 4 ounces (120 grams) of
fiber. Small tests can be done with a quarter of the amounts given in the recipes,
using | ounce (30 grams) or small scraps of fiber—as in the five experiments
following. In such tests, the amount of dyestuff need not be quite exact, as the
color will vary anyway according to season and locality, but chemicals should
be measured as precisely as possible. The small quantities used in fun
experiments are not easy to repeat exactly—but plant dyeing never is!
Four ounces of fiber need at least | gallon of water (more is better); 1 ounce
needs at least % gallon and preferably more. The essential ratio is that of dye
substance to fiber—the amount of water used is mainly to allow the yarn to
move freely in the bath. Since the amount of dye substance in any batch of
plants varies with the season, the ground, the past weather, and so on, I advise
using rather larger quantities of plant material than are generally suggested,
because many new dyers are disappointed in the result when the color looks
weak and thin. The quantities I give will seldom exhaust the dye substance in
the liquor, and a fresh batch of fiber heated in the same bath will take the dye as
a weaker color (the second or third dyeing of fresh fiber is called an ‘texhaust
bath’), but these quantities do give more certain results.
If the dye is not exhausted, the liquor may be stored in tightly capped glass
jars for some time, depending on the climate and the particular plant. The liquor
can be kept indefinitely in a refrigerator.

20
Five Experimental Recipes
To provide beginners with some first experiences of making color from plants, I
have chosen five simple substances, in the belief that one or more of them will
be readily available whether the dyer is a town or country dweller, and no matter
what the locality and season of the year. The five are black walnut hulls, apple or
pear bark, bilberry or blueberry (also, depending on where you live and which
species is dominant, called whortleberry, farkleberry, deerberry, cowberry,
rabbiteye, or huckleberry), onion skins, and turmeric, a common household
spice,
These are all non-mordant dyes and do not require fixing. However, most
households have cream of tartar (potassium acid tartrate) and perhaps alum
(potassium aluminum sulfate). With a small quantity of dyestufftotest, a pinch of
alum with an even smaller pinch of tartar, or the tartar alone, added to the bath
just before the test fiber, will usually strengthen the color. Mordanting is dealt
with in Chapter 2.
Experienced dyers may skip the remainder of this chapter, which aims at
giving some immediate results by simple means.

TO MAKE PINK TO PURPLE FROM BILBERRY OR

BLUEBERRY
Vaccinium species

Method: Crush the berries in the bottom of a pan and add rather less than
gallon soft water, because the juice contributes liquid. (In this case it is
especially important to use soft water — rain water or water from the peaty
pools near where the shrubs are found. If soft water is not available, add 1
tablespoon of vinegar.) Bring to the simmer, then simmer for % hour. Strain off
the berries and discard them, and return the liquor to the dyebath. When it has
cooled to hand-heat, enter the clean, thoroughly wetted wool. Slowly bring the
bath to the simmer and simmer gently for 30 minutes, stirring lightly to move
the wool about. Remove a skein and hold it to drip over the dyebath for a few
moments. Rinse the wool in hot soft water and squeeze gently; then rinse in
cooler water and squeeze gently again. Label the skein and hang to dry in the 1 oz (30G) oR LESS WOOL, DIVIDED
shade. The wool will probably be heather pink. ROUGHLY INTO FIVE SKEINS AND TIED WITH
Continue simmering the wool still in the bath for another 30 minutes, and STRING OR THICK THREAD
remove a second skein. Rinse, label, and dry as before.
Simmer remaining wool in the bath for another hour and remove another Y-1 1B (250G-.5kG) oR ABOUT 2
skein, which should be much darker in color than the first two, and continue as HANDFULS BILBERRIES OR BLUEBERRIES,
before until all the wool has been dyed. FRESH, CANNED, OR DRIED
Soaking the wool after it comes from the dyebath in a solution of 1 tablespoon
salt to a gallon of water makes the color more blue, but also grays it a little. Y2 GAL OR LESS SOFT WATER FOR THE
Dyers often use the simultaneous method described on page 20 with bilberries DYEBATH
or blueberries because it gives a purer color.

21
 TO MAKE SHADES OF BROWN FROM BLACK WALNUT
HULLS
Juglans nigra is even better than the English J. regia

Method: If the hulls are freshly picked or dried, they will benefit from steeping
at least overnight in soft water. Then simmer them in this water, made up to 2
or 1 gallon, for 1 to 2 hours. Strain off the hulls and discard them, and return the
liquor to the dyebath. When it has cooled to hand-heat, enter the clean,
thoroughly wetted wool. Slowly bring the bath to the simmer and simmer gently
for 30 minutes, stirring lightly to move the wool about. Remove a skein and hold
it to drip over the dyebath for a few moments. Rinse the wool in hot soft water
1 oz (30G) or LESS WOOL, DIVIDED and squeeze gently; then rinse in cooler water and squeeze again. Label the skein
ROUGHLY INTO FIVE SKEINS AND TIED and hang it to dry in the shade.
Continue simmering the wool still in the bath for another 30 minutes, and
10-20 BLACK WALNUT HULLS OR HUSKS, remove a second skein. Rinse, label, and dry as before.
PICKED FRESH WHEN DEVELOPING DARK Simmer remaining wool in the bath for another hour and remove another
SPOTS, PICKED ROTTEN FROM THE GROUND, skein, which should be much darker in color than the first two, and continue as
OR before until all the wool has been dyed. By top-dyeing the darker skeins (as
PICKED EARLIER AND STORED IN JARS OF described in Chapter 6), you can make a strong black.
WATER It is also possible to get a brown dye from the bark of the black walnut tree:
follow the recipe for apple and pear bark.
Y%)-| GAL SOFT WATER FOR THE DYEBATH The pale brown inner shells of shop walnuts do yield a dye, but it is infinitely
less powerful than that of the outer shells or husks.

TO MAKE SOFT YELLOW FROM APPLE OR PEAR BARK

Malus species and Pyrus species

Method: Chop the bark roughly and simmer it in the soft water for 1 to 2 hours.
The color yielded by bark usually becomes stronger the longer it is simmered, up
to 3 or 4 hours, so this liquor can be simmered quite briskly before the wool is
entered. If much of the water boils away, make it up to % or | gallon. Strain off
the bark and discard it, and return the liquor to the dyebath. When it has cooled
to hand-heat, enter the clean, thoroughly wetted wool. Slowly bring the bath to
1 oz (30G) oR LESS WOOL, DIVIDED the simmer and simmer gently for 30 minutes, stirring lightly to move the wool
ROUGHLY INTO FIVE SKEINS AND TIED about. Remove a skein and hold it to drip over the dyebath for a few moments.
Rinse the wool in hot soft water and squeeze gently; then rinse in cooler water
Yo-1 1B (250G-.5kG) APPLE OR PEAR BARK, and squeeze gently again. Label the skein and hang it to dry in the shade.
FROM RECENTLY CUT BRANCHES OR FALLEN Continue simmering the wool still in the bath for another 30 minutes, and
TREES IF POSSIBLE remove a second skein. Rinse, label, and dry as before.
Simmer remaining wool in the bath for another hour and remove another
Y2-1 GAL SOFT WATER FOR THE DYEBATH skein, which should be much darker in color than the first two, and continue as
before until all the wool has been dyed.

22
TO MAKE YELLOW FROM ONION SKINS
Allium cepa

Method: Put the skins in the soft water and bring to the simmer, then simmer
for % to | hour. A lid will prevent the smell from escaping. If much of the water
boils away, make it up to % or | gallon. Strain off the skins and discard them,
and return the liquor to the dyebath. When it has cooled to hand-heat, enter the
clean, thoroughly wetted wool. Slowly bring the bath to the simmer and simmer
gently for 15 minutes, stirring lightly to move the wool about. Remove a skein
and hold it to drip over the dyebath for a few moments. Rinse the wool in hot
soft water and squeeze gently; then rinse in cooler water and squeeze gently
again. Label the skein and hang it to dry in the shade.
Continue simmering the wool still in the bath for another 15 minutes, and
remove a second skein. Rinse, label, and dry as before.
Simmer remaining wool in the bath for another 15 minutes and remove
another skein, which should be much darker in color than the first two, and 1 oz (30c) or LESS WOOL, DIVIDED
continue as before until all the wool has been dyed. ROUGHLY INTO FIVE SKEINS AND TIED
The addition of any of the mordants given in Chapter 2 to this recipe will
produce a brassy yellow to orange. While in the western United States I 2 HANDFULS OUTER SKINS OF COMMON
repeatedly got a fine lime green from the skins of red onions, and again in YELLOW ONIONS
Pennsylvania from imported Italian red-onion skins. It is possible that other red
onions give this, but I have not been able to obtain it from Texan red onions nor Yo-1 GAL SOFT WATER FOR THE DYEBATH
from onions imported into Britain.

TO MAKE YELLOW FROM TURMERIC

Curcuma longa

Method: Put the turmeric powder in the soft water and stir well while bringing
to hand-heat. Enter the clean, thoroughly wetted wool. Slowly bring the bath to
the simmer and simmer gently for 2 minutes, stirring lightly to move the wool
about. Remove a skein and hold it to drip over the dyebath for a few moments.
Rinse the wool in hot soft water and squeeze gently; then rinse in cooler water
and squeeze gently again. Label the skein and hang it to dry in the shade.
Continue simmering the wool still in the bath for another 2 minutes, and
remove a second skein. Rinse, label, and dry as before.
Simmer remaining wool in the bath for another few minutes and remove
another skein, and continue as before until all the wool has been dyed. Ten
minutes will give a brilliant yellow.
Although turmeric needs no mordant, chrome and tin as described in Chapter
2 will both give interesting colors. The yellow can also be used for top-dyeing
with walnut (see Chapter 6). Turmeric is a very strong, brilliant dye, but it does 1 oz (30c) oR LESS WOOL, DIVIDED
not last well over the years. ROUGHLY INTO FIVE SKEINS AND TIED

If not every one of the first experiments you do is completely successful, they 1'4 TSP TURMERIC POWDER
will at least give you confidence that ordinary plants can yield permanent, varied
dyes. Now you will want to understand more of the process of dyeing and go on Y)-1 GAL SOFT WATER FOR THE DYEBATH
to experiment with mordants.

23
 2. Mordants

It has been shown that certain plants will dye without any further substance
being present (these are known as “‘substantive’’ dyes, but I shall continue to use
the simpler term, ‘‘non-mordant” dyes). Quite often, a plant that yields a non-
mordant dye, such as bilberry or buckthorn, will give a stronger color with a
mordant and often a range of colors with different mordants. The lichen dyes,
discussed in Chapter 7, are the main class of non-mordant dyes that give a range
of color without any chemical.
The word “‘mordant’’ comes from the French mordre, to bite, and mordants
can be described as metallic salts with an affinity for both fibers and dyestuffs,
which improve the color fastness. Dyes that need a mordant are sometimes
called ‘“‘adjective” or “‘indirect’’ dyes.
The Chinese had dye-workshops as early as 3000B. C. ; the first Western dyers
known were the primitive Lake Dwellers of what is now Switzerland, who lived
about 2000 B. c. But the first certain use of mordants was in the Middle
Kingdom in Egypt (between about 2200 and 1500 B.C.), as is known from
textiles found on mummies preserved by the dry air of the Egyptian tombs.
We cannot be sure what were the sources of the early mordants, but we can
guess from what was available and from the knowledge we have from some
areas of the world still using “‘primitive”’ methods today. In the remote parts of
Brazil I found wood ashes used, as they still are in Peru. The early American
colonists are recorded as using “‘salt, vinegar, soda, cream of tartar, or ‘lye.’”
“Drip lye’? was made at home from wood ashes, and ‘“‘chamber lye” (urine) was
a ready source of ammonia and other salts. Urine was until recently and may
still be used in Ireland, Scotland, and many parts of Europe. Male urine was
sometimes said to be better than female! Sumac galls and oak galls were both

24
used as mordants as well as dyes. The galls on the leaves are caused by an insect
whose attack stimulates the tree to excessive growth. A brown ball that serves as
the insect’s home is formed; the insect will be found on cutting through a gall.
Tannin, which is concentrated in the galls, is the mordant.
American Indians used what was to hand as mordants. The Ojibwa used local
clays, grindstone dust, the water in which iron had rusted, and wood ashes.
Many of the plants they used were unrecorded, but we have this account of a
Navajo woman preparing to dye wool brown with mahogany root bark*: “She
uses juniper ash water for her mordant. .. .She sets fire to a big handful of
juniper branches, burning only the green needles, and holds them over a frying
pan so that the ashes will fall into it. Then she adds boiling water, which after
straining, she uses as a mordant with the mahogany root bark.’’** The mordant
seems to have been added to the dyebath after the solids were strained off. Two
parts water to one part green needles, by volume, were used.
In Bali the ashes of coconut-palm leaves were strained through a bamboo
sieve, mixed with cold water, and used as a mordant for the beautiful Turkey-red
dye from madder; the Hebridean dyers recently used roots of sorrel with
meadowsweet to make a kind of blue.
Beginning dyers have a number of mordants already around the house — salt,
vinegar, several forms of soda, cream of tartar, and possibly wood ashes. Some
others, such as sorrel, sumac, and oak galls, may be found readily in the
countryside.
In addition to adding substances to a bath for mordanting, the vessel that is
used may itself serve as a mordant. From many parts of the world come reports
of dyers who use copper or tin vessels to brighten colors, and an iron kettle or
iron filings to dull them. The use of an aluminum vessel — or the addition of a
piece of sheet aluminum to a dye-pot with a little soda — is advocated by a New
Zealand dyer*** as an alternative to alum mordant. The beginning dyer,
however, should do the first experiments in a steel or enamel pot, or the “basic”
color of the dyes will not be apparent.
The most common chemical mordants used by plant dyers are listed below,
but alum is the most generally helpful, and no one should be put off beginning to
dye by the absence of the others.
Alum (potassium aluminum sulfate), which is used in building construction as
well as household preserving, comes in white crystals. You may be offered
aluminum ammoniate, which will serve, but the sulfate is better especially for
frail plants. Raw alum, which occurs as soft white chunks in the flat Indian
country of the United States, especially around sulfur springs, in New Mexico,
is used by the Navajo for mordanting light, pure colors. They use it cold, but
also throw chunks onto the fire and add them foaming to the boiling dyebath.
Cream of tartar (tartaric acid) is the white crystalline powder familiar as an
ingredient in baking. It is often used in conjunction with alum.
Chrome (potassium dichromate) is used by photographers, and comes in
been
*This is obviously not the mahogany tree, which does not grow in Navajo country, but it has
suggested that it might be Cerocarpus, which is known as mountain mahogany.
**Nonabeh G. Bryan, Navajo Native Dyes, 1940.
*** Joyce Lloyd, Dyes from Plants of Australia and New Zealand, 1971.

25
 orange crystals. It is sensitive to light and must be kept in a dark jar, preferably
in the dark, especially when in solution. It is also called bichromate of potash.
Tin (stannous chloride) comes in off-white crystals and should be stored in a
dry place.
Tron (ferrous sulfate), also known as copperas and green vitriol, comes in soft
green crystals that are corrosive when damp or in solution.
Blue vitriol (copper sulfate) comes in beautiful blue crystals and is a useful
mordant for green dyes. It is a poison.
Glauber’s salts (sodium sulfate) is useful for extracting the last of the color
from an exhaust bath, and for obtaining an even dye, but it sometimes darkens
colors.
Other common chemicals used in dyeing are:
Washing soda (sodium carbonate), another white crystalline powder often
used for household cleaning. It is sometimes called sal soda.
Common salt (sodium chloride) and vinegar (a weak solution of acetic acid).
Oxalic acid is corrosive and should not be handled with the fingers. It comes
in white crystals that should be stored and labeled accordingly. Alternatives are
given in recipes that call for oxalic acid.
Lime (calcium oxide), is a chemical commonly used for building and in
gardens.
Alum, Glauber’s salts, and probably blue vitriol can be bought at any
pharmacy. Potassium dichromate, stannous chloride, and ferrous sulfate may be
found in most school laboratories or ordered from a dyehouse or chemicals
supplier, who can also supply the other chemicals listed more cheaply than ~
pharmacies. Chrome may be obtained from photographic suppliers. (A list of
suppliers is given at the back of the book, but dyers may find that the less
common substances are not always sold in quantities of less than a pound. Since
the amounts required by dyers are very small, an individual might share with a
club, school, or other group.)
Some of the chemicals listed here are harmless, but some are dangerous. All
should be kept stoppered and labeled and away from children.
When a chemical is added at some stage during the course of dyeing, the fiber
should always be lifted out of the bath and the chemical stirred in well before the
fiber is returned to the bath.

PREPARATION OF FIBERS FOR MORDANTING

When wool or cotton is mordanted, the fiber must be tied up in some way to
prevent it from getting tangled while being moved about in the bath. The
traditional way is to tie it as for dyeing, as described on page 13. The ties must
not be too tight, or the mordant will not penetrate under them, which does not
appear until the dye color shows up unevenly.
The fibers must also be clean or they will not accept the mordant evenly, and
again the dye color will take unevenly. Directions for washing are given on page
2
I mordant a quantity of fiber at one time, and it may be months before I use
it, so I have a system of using different fibers to tie up the skeins so that they

26
need no further marking until dyed. Any easily available string will do, but I tie
those for alum mordant with cotton embroidery thread, those for chrome with
cotton string, those for tin with nylon string, and those for iron with fine twine.
Any number of refinements could be made — two knots for alum plus tartar,
and so on.
Wool to be dried and kept for a long time should be moth-proofed, or be
stored in mothproof bags.

PROCEDURE

In many cases it is possible to add the mordant to the dyebath, but sometimes
the smallness of the quantities is a problem. I am always testing plants in
whatever country I am, and I would never be put off doing this by not having
any ready-mordanted wool — I simply add a few crystals of alum and tin (which
I normally carry in tiny bottles) to a small quantity of the plant liquor to see if it
is worth investigating further. However, on the whole it is easier and more exact
to mordant separately, and to keep a supply of small hanks of both cotton and
wool ready-mordanted for testing. On the other hand, when you see that the
color of the dye needs to be modified, you can add cream oftartar or tin near the
end of the dyeing to brighten it, or iron to dull or “‘sadden”’ it.
It is convenient to mordant quantities of different types of wool or cotton and
cotton mixtures and fancy threads at one time. But since the dye recipes in this
book are for 4 ounces (120 grams) of fiber, the following mordant recipes are for
the same quantity, and the amounts can be multiplied as necessary.

Mordants For Wool

TO MORDANT WOOL WITH ALUM AND CREAM OF

TARTAR

Method: Mix the alum and cream of tartar with a little boiling water and add to
the rest of the water. Stir to dissolve the chemicals well, and heat. When the
water is about hand-heat, enter the clean, thoroughly wetted wool. Slowly bring
the bath to the simmer — this should not take less than 1 hour — stirring
occasionally; then lower the heat and simmer the wool (1 to 1% hours for coarse
wool, % to | hour for fine wool). Stir gently from time to time. Remove the wool 4 oz (120c) wool, TIED IN SKEINS
with a rod and hold it to drip over the pot for a few moments. When it is cool
enough to handle, gently squeeze out the excess water, but do not wring the wool 1 oz (30c) or 1% TBsP OR SLIGHTLY LESS
or rinse it. Dye the wool immediately, or keep it damp in a cloth or bag for the ALUM
next day, or dry and store it for future use. Y% oz (7G) or 1% TSP CREAM OF TARTAR
Different results are obtained by the use of alum alone or cream of tartar
alone, but the combination is usually more successful. When alum is given as the | GAL SOFT WATER
mordant, alum and cream of tartar is to be understood.

27
 TO MORDANT WOOL WITH CHROME

Method: Mordanting with chrome is best done just before dyeing. Dissolve the
chrome in a little boiling water and add to the rest of the water. Stir to dissolve
the chrome well, and heat. When the water is about hand-heat, enter the clean,
thoroughly wetted wool. Put a plate or other weight on top of the wool to keep it
submerged and cover the pot with a lid except when stirring. Chrome is very
sensitive to light: if light falls on any part of the fiber, it will darken it and cause
uneven dyeing. Slowly bring the bath to the simmer; then lower the heat and
simmer the wool (1 to 12 hours for coarse wool, % to | hour for fine wool). Stir
gently from time to time. Remove the wool with a rod and wrap it in a towel.
When it is cool enough to handle, gently squeeze out the excess water, but do not
wring the wool or rinse it. Keep the wool wrapped in a towel even for the
moments between mordanting and dyeing if it is dyed immediately. It can be
4 oz (120cG) woot, TIED IN SKEINS kept damp in the towel for the next day, or dried and stored in the dark for
future use.
% oz (3.5G) or A SCANT 2 TSP CHROME Chrome gives wool a soft and silky texture, making it pleasant to handle.
(TOO MUCH WILL DARKEN THE COLOR) Sometimes adding cream of tartar to the dyebath will improve the colors
obtained with chrome-mordanted fibers. For 4 ounces (120 grams) of wool, add
1 GAL SOFT WATER 3/16 ounce (6 grams) cream of tartar to the dyebath before entering the wool,
and stir well-to dissolve it.

TO MORDANT WOOL WITH TIN

Method: Heat all but a little of the water to hand-heat and then stir in the cream
of tartar or oxalic acid, dissolved in a little boiling water. When this is
4 oz (120cG) woot, TIED IN SKEINS thoroughly dissolved, stir in the tin, dissolved in a little more boiling water. Keep
the bath at hand-heat and enter the clean, thoroughly wetted wool. Slowly bring
Ys oz (3.5G) or A SCANT | TSP STANNOUS the bath to the simmer — this should not take less than 1 hour; then lower the
CHLORIDE CRYSTALS heat and simmer the wool (1 to 1% hours for coarse wool, % to | hour for fine
wool). Remove the wool with a rod and hold it to drip over the pot for a few
% oz (3.5G) or a GENEROUS |'2 TSP moments. Do not leave the wool in the bath longer than necessary, as it will be
CREAM OF TARTAR roughened. Wash the wool in warm soapy water and rinse in warm water.
OR To prevent brittleness, after dyeing tin-mordanted fiber is usually washed
%, 9z(3.5G) or | TSP OXALIC ACID again in soapy water and rinsed thoroughly.
CRYSTALS Tin is also used to brighten reds (which may have been mordanted with
another mordant); this is called ‘“‘blooming.”’ For 4 ounces (120 grams) of wool,
] GAL SOFT WATER add '4 teaspoon tin, dissolved in a little boiling water, to the dyebath 20 minutes
before the dyeing is finished.

28
6
These three groups of wool have been dved
with the same plants-blackberry, pokeberry,
goldenrod, and walnut-but the group at top
left was mordanted with tin; the group at top
right with chrome, and the group at bottom
with alunn.
 TO MORDANT WOOL WITH BLUE VITRIOL

Method: Dissolve the copper sulfate in a little boiling water and add to the rest
of the water. Stir to dissolve it well and heat. When the water is about hand-
heat, enter the clean, thoroughly wetted wool. Slowly bring the bath to the
simmer — this should take not less than an hour — stirring occasionally; then
lower the heat and simmer the wool (1 to 12 hours for coarse wool, % tol hour
4 oz (120G) woot, TIED IN SKEINS for fine wool). Stir gently from time to time. Remove the wool with a rod and
hold it to drip over the pot for a few moments. When it is cool enough to handle,
% oz (7G) oR 2 TSP CRUSHED COPPER gently squeeze out the excess water, but do not wring the wool or rinse it. Dye
SULFATE CRYSTALS the wool immediately, or keep it damp in a cloth or bag for the next day, or dry
and store it for future use.
1 GAL SOFT WATER If mostly bright colors are desired, 1/2 teaspoons cream of tartar may be
added at the beginning of the bath.

TO MORDANT WOOL WITH IRON

Method: The most common method is to dye first and then remove the wool
(holding or handing it over the bath in the steam to prevent it from cooling) and
add the iron-and cream of tartar to the bath. Stir thoroughly, return the wool to
4 oz (120G) woot. TIED IN SKEINS the bath, and simmer for 20 to 40 minutes, according to the depth of color
desired. As iron always dulls the color (but produces some fine somber greens
’ oz (3.5G) or 1% Tsp FERROUS SULFATE from yellow dyes), this is called “saddening.” Rinse especially thoroughly after -
mordanting with iron.
% oz (7G) oR 2% TSP CREAM OF TARTAR Mordanting beforehand can be done by following the method just given for
tin, with the amounts of ferrous sulfate and cream of tartar specified here.
1 GAL SOFT WATER
The same effect can also be obtained by dyeing in an iron vessel.
Note: Silk should not be mordanted with iron.

30
 Silk is usually mordanted like wool. Recipes for mordanting cotton and linen
are given in Chapter S.
One of the fascinations of using mordants is a certain underlying quality of
color that is conveyed to the shades fixed by one mordant, as though they were
in one musical key.
Alum is not dramatic in its effect, but it is the most widely used and the most
stable, and will often improve the brightness and fastness of colors that can be
obtained from non-mordant dyes. Too much alum makes wool sticky.
Chrome gives a warm underglow to many colors and brings out reds and
oranges, but mutes greens into a grayish green. It softens the texture of wool. It
is extremely light-sensitive. Too much darkens wool.
Tin brightens most colors, and you can get startling brassy effects that can
glow when crossed in weaving with darker colors. Too much tin makes wool
rather brittle and harsh to touch.
Iron always dulls — or, in the dyers’ language, ‘“‘saddens’”’ — colors, and it is
usually a constituent of blacks. Too much iron hardens wool.
Burning leafy or woody plants, as every gardener knows, produces potash, but
the varying concentrations of chemicals at different times of the year in different
tree-trunks or roots, or dead fruits (or the tannin in oak galls) results in complex
mixtures of compounds. The study of them is analogous to that of the potter
who uses ash glazes: it has been found undeniably that the ash of, say, beech-
wood burned in the autumn of a certain wet year will differ not only from the ash
of oak-wood but from that of beech in other years and with different weather.
In addition to the basic mordants discussed, washing soda, lime water (water
solution of calcium hydroxide), and potash (potassium carbonate) or the ashes
from any wood fire are all worth trying. Many yellow dyes — coltsfoot, bog
myrtle, heather — will turn green on adding iron, in the form of water in which
iron filings have rusted, or ferrous sulfate crystals. This both changes and fixes
the color. The same mordant will modify the tan color from acorns to a warm
gray. Copper sulfate — those crystals of deep turquoise color — produces a
warm brown from dock leaves rather than the normal yellow, and, on the other
hand, turns an exhaust bath of the lichen Parmelia from red-brown to soft green.
Unless you are going to go into mordants in a very scientific way, only
tradition, built up over generations, is any guide. As amateur dyers — in the true
sense of the words, lovers of dyeing — we must accept the uncertainties, the
disappointments, with the delights, and enjoy rather than deplore the magic that
we cannot completely explain.

31
 3. Dyeing in Every Season

In whatever situation, in whatever season, and no matter if the environment is

rural or urban, there will be dye plants to be found. The first thrustings of green —
in spring often produce,yellow to green dyes, such as those from bracken fronds
or lily-of-the-valley leaves, and one can pull up the rogue weed, dog’s mercury,
for the dye-pot with aggressive satisfaction. In high summer when flowers are
prolific the range of color is wide and again in autumn the berries provide not
only food for us and the birds but many dyes as well. When the plants have died
down, those whose roots contain dye can be dug up with even less misgiving
(though sometimes these root dyes are better gathered in summer) while the
faded foliage remains to identify them. (Or you can mark the spot with a stick in
summer with an eye to later collection.) Even when winter comes and the earth
is bare, there are the lichens to be scraped off the rocks — this is best done when
it is damp, and one dyer has worked chiefly with lichen dyes in the Arctic. When
the earth is quite frozen, the foliage and berries withered, and the plant roots
sealed away from us by snow, the barks remain. One is not usually allowed to
pick plants in city parks, but the trees and shrubs have to be clipped, and these
clippings and remaining berries, or the dead leaves of poplar and other trees, can
be collected. But much of the fun of plant dyeing is to extend one’s range and get
into the country to look for plants that yield a dye. For this and other reasons I
have arranged the recipes in this chapter according to the seasons.

OBTAINING DEPTH AND VARIETY OF COLOR

There are three main ways of obtaining color of some strength: using a large
amount of the plant in proportion to the yarn to be dyed; boiling for a long time;

32
and leaving the dyed wool to steep in the liquor after boiling. The last two may
cause delicate colors to be dulled. But in almost all cases, stronger color will be
obtained with a mordant.
As will become apparent, different colors are obtained under apparently the
same conditions from the same plant when it is growing in different soils, when
the season has been exceptionally wet or dry, or when it is gathered at different
times of the year. I am told that at Penland School of Handicrafts in North
Carolina, twelve different shades were obtained in the twelve months of the year
from the leaves of just one plant, the rhododendron.
For all these reasons, it is seldom possible to match a batch of dye exactly, so
in planning a large piece of work it is essential to dye enough of each color at one
time. If two different shades of one dye need to be matched, the two lots can be
simmered for 15 to 30 minutes in a bath containing 1 cup of Glauber’s salts to
each gallon of water.

COLOR FASTNESS

Fastness of color may be expressed as fastness to light and fastness to washing.

Few plant dyes can claim to be absolutely fast over many years, but they do
fade to beautiful soft colors, very different from some harsh or vapid chemical
dyes. All the recipes given in this book offer some degree of fastness unless
otherwise noted, and the dyes with a long history, such as weld, indigo, and
madder, a good degree. Obviously, the use to which the dyed fiber is to be put
will be a factor. We do not expect wool embroidery to be washed frequently,
and many woven and knitted objects would be dry-cleaned. Many subtle colors
not very fast to washing, such as pokeberry, can be used for wool embroidery,
therefore. On the other hand, bedspreads are perhaps better washable, and
curtains must have fastness to light, so it is wise to choose cotton dyes for bed
linen and eschew dyes from barks for curtains, since dyes made from barks rely
on tannin, and will darken with exposure to light. It is for these reasons that
mordants are so often used, but to disprove the idea that plant dyeing is
complicated and lengthy, I suggest beginning with no mordants or only such as
are common household substances.

GENERAL PRINCIPLES FOR DYEING WITH FLOWERS»

Flowers are best gathered fresh and used straight away. Simmer them briefly
(between ten minutes and an hour), or the delicacy of the color will be lost. I
take out a sample every 20 minutes or so and stop when the required color is
reached. Often large quantities of flowers are needed. If it is not important to
get an even color throughout the wool (such varied effects give a sparkle to
embroidery, for instance), then you can put the fiber in with the flowers, so the
simmering time will be quite short. You can put the flowers in a muslin bag or
nylon stocking to prevent them from getting tangled in the wool.
Liquor from the strained flowers will seldom keep. Some flowers, such as
forsythia, can be dried by tossing in the warm shade, but most flowers dye
much better when fresh, and when the weather is hot, I carry a stoppered jar of

33
 water and pick them straight into it, pouring this directly into the dyebath.
If not enough blossoms of one type are available on any day, you can make a
mixture of those that give similar colors — for instance, marigolds, dahlias,
coreopsis. Or fustic or turmeric may be added to a yellow flower dye to give it
brilliance.

GENERAL PRINCIPLES FOR DYEING WITH BERRIES

Most berries are best when gathered just overripe and used straight away. But
purplish red shades can be varied by keeping the berries in a warm place until
they ferment, or, in some cases, letting them almost rot. Hard berries should be
pounded with a wooden club or, failing that, with a hammer to free the juices.
Some berries, such as elder and sloe, can be stored dry in glass jars for future
use if no dampness clings to them. Again, if the liquor made from them is
strained and stored, it should be sealed like jam or kept in a very cold place to
prevent fermentation.
OF LEAVES OF HERBS, OR TREES It is possible to dye with canned or bottled berries — which occasionally, as
1. Of leaves choose only such as are green and full ofjuice; with blackberries, give a stronger color — and often with dried berries (such as
pick them carefully, and cast away such as are declining, for
they will putrify all the rest. So shall one handful be worth ten bilberry or blueberry) or with frozen berries, but on the whole the best results
of those you buy in Cheapside.
2. Note what places they most delight to grow in, and
are from fresh ones.
gather them there; for betony that grows in the shade is far For drying, spread the berries on a wire mesh tray (a cooling tray for baking
better than that growing in the sun, because it delights in the
shade; so also such herbs as delight to grow near the water, will serve) and gently shake it each day or so until they shrivel. The important
shall be gathered near it, though haply you may find some of
them upon dry ground. The treatise will inform you where
thing — unless they are being deliberately fermented to obtain a different color
every herb delights to grow. — is that no moisture should remain on them. When they are dry, store them in |
3. The leaves of such herbs as run up to seed are not so good
when they are in flower as before, (some few excepted, the a porous (not airtight) container such as muslin bags or old stockings,
leaves of which are seldom or never used) in such cases, if
through ignorance they were not known, or through preferably hung in a dry place. Label them.
negligence forgotten, you had better take the top and the
flowers than the leaf.
4. Dry them well in the sun, and not in the shade, as the GENERAL PRINCIPLES FOR DYEING WITH BARKS
saying of the physician is; for if the sun draw away the virtues
of the herb, it must needs do the like by hay, by the same rule,
which the experience of every country farmer will explode for
a notable piece of nonsense.
Tree barks are used for preparing leather hides because they contain tannin.
5. Such as are astrologers (and indeed none else are fit to Because of the tannin content, colors from barks come out yellow to brown,
make physicians) such I advise; let the planet that governs the
herb be angular, and the stronger the better; if they can, in sometimes a warm red-brown. Many trees will be found with lichens or mosses
herbs of Saturn, let Saturn be in the ascendant; in the herb of
Mars, let Mars be in the Mid-heaven, for in those houses they growing on the bark and these may affect the color, so it is wise to avoid such
delight; let the Moon apply to them by good aspect, and let
her not be in the houses ofher enemies; if you cannot well stay
parts and to wash bark in warm water before using it.
till she apply to them, let her apply to a planet of the same Great care should be taken in removing bark from forest trees. The living
triplicity; if you cannot wait that time neither, let her be with a
fixed star of their nature. part of a tree is the circle between the bark and the trunk, from which the tree
6. Having well dried them, put them up in brown paper,
sewing the paper up like a sack, and press them not too hard
increases its girth inwards and stretches the bark to increase it outwards.
together, and keep them in a dry place near the fire. Therefore, to rip off the bark down to the living cells is destructive to the tree. I
7. As for the duration of dried herbs, a just time cannot be
given, let authors prate at their pleasure; for, have not found much difference between the color obtained from living trees
Ist. Such as grow upon dry grounds will keep better than
such as grow on moist. and recently felled trees, so obviously it is better to take the bark from cut trees
2dly. Such herbs as are full ofjuice will not keep so long as
such as are dryer.
or from a recently broken branch if these are available. But when trees grow
3dly. Such herbs as are well dried, will keep longer than too large—and this is useful to know in one’s gardening—their growth can be
such as are slack dried. Yet you may know, when they are
corrupted by their loss of colour, or smell, or both: and, if they slowed down by “‘bark-ringing.”’ This means cutting the bark down to the living
be corrupted, reason will tell you that they must needs corrupt
the bodies of those people that take them.
ring in an almost complete circle in acute cases, or in two half-circles about
4.Gather all leaves in the hour of that planet that governs
them.
four inches apart to slow growth only moderately. Afterwards seal the wound
with lead paint or wax compound. (Do not cut the bark down to the living ring
Culpeper’s Herbal
in a complete circle—this will kill the tree.)

34
 In most recipes the best color is obtained from the inner bark, as with black
oak and cherry. Barks should be cut into pieces and soaked overnight. All
barks need to be simmered for a long time, perhaps two hours, but the liquor
can usually be stored in jars after it has been sieved. If no dark cupboard or
Opaque jars with lids are available, cover glass jars with tents of aluminum foil
or with brown paper bags.
All barks and certain other parts of plants, as noted in the recipes, can be
dried for future use. Bark dried in the air or in a slightly warm oven can be
stored in boxes or drawers; label it at the time. In this way the prodigal days of
summer and autumn can be used in gathering and storing up material for winter
use or for when there is time to deal with it in a leisurely way.

GENERAL PRINCIPLES FOR DYEING WITH LEAVES

Tender green leaves, like nettle, bracken fronds, spinach, should be picked and
used immediately or the clear green will tend to go yellow-brown. Do not
overheat them or the same thing will happen. Some tougher leaves such as birch
are better soaked for 24 hours before simmering, and very tough leaves can be
macerated before soaking. When you use the whole top of a plant, or leaves that
are more mature, such as dock or Lombardy poplar, it is better to cut them up,
but in fact I seldom do this unless the plant is big — I just bend and crack them
with my hands.
Some leaves, such as those of weld, can be gathered whole, tied by the stems,
and hung in a warm place to be chopped up later for the dyebath. Leaves taken
from trees should be stripped off the branches, which contain tannin and would
dull the color.
On the whole, the best time to take leaves is when they are just mature but
before seeding, and this is especially important in the case of weld if you want a
fresh green.
We cannot do better than take the advice of Culpeper for gathering leaves (see
extract).
¥4 TBSP ALUM

1'4 TSP CREAM OF TARTAR

My students find it easy to use the principles by thinking of their dye material SCANT 12 TSP POTASSIUM DICHROMATE
as “tough” or “tender.” “‘Tenders”’ are fragile flowers or leaves, to be used fresh
and simmered briefly. ““‘Toughs’’ are barks, roots and nuts to be chopped, SCANT | TSP STANNOUS CHLORIDE
probably soaked, and simmered at length.
1'4 TSP CREAM OF TARTAR
The seasonal recipes have been reduced to the essentials for brevity. A
detailed description of the procedures for dyeing has been given in Chapter |. In 2 TSP COPPER SULFATE
all the following recipes, it is presumed that the wool will have been previously
mordanted as described in Chapter 2. If the wool has not been mordanted, add 1% TSP FERROUS SULFATE
the mordant to the dyebath, in the quantity given here, before entering the fiber,
and stir well to dissolve. The exception is iron: it is added near the end of the 2” TSP CREAM OF TARTAR
dyeing so as not to harshen the wool unnecessarily.

35
 Recipes For Spring

SWEET GALE OR BOG MYRTLE

Myrica gale

This | '4-to 5-foot-high bush with long grayish leaves of a very distinctive scent
grows in bogs and waste places with acid soils. It is a feature of the moors of
Scotland and Scandinavia, where it has been used for centuries for a yellow dye,
and is also native to North America. It is one of the plants that make a good dye
when the leaves are gathered green in late spring or early summer and dried for
winter use. Avoid the woody stems, as they will dull the color.

Mordant: Alum gives a good yellow. Myrtle will do with 12 times the usual
amount of alum. The additional alum can be added to the dyebath.

Method: If you use dried leaves, they should be steeped overnight in the water to
be used for dyeing. If the leaves are fresh, put them in cold water and heat
4 oz (120G) or 1-2 QTS LEAVES, DRIED OR slowly. Simmer for | hour. Strain off the leaves and cool the liquor. Add the
FRESH alum. Enter the clean,wetted wool and return bath to the simmer. Simmer for %4
to | hour, according to the depth of color desired. Rinse the wool twice and dry.
Y2 oz (15G) or %4 TSP ALUM Dagmar Lunde of Norway suggests an afterbath of copper to get a warm -
yellow-brown, or an afterbath of iron to get a yellow-green.

AGRIMONY
Sw, Agrimonia eupatoria

ap
Nig e
BSN) NZ
A yellow flower of the rose family, agrimony grows in spikes | to 3 feet high,
with nine pinnated saw-edged leaves rising from saw-edged whorls on the stem.
3 Keer
a
The fruits carry little hooks that catch on passing animals and serve to disperse
the seeds. A common plant in northern Europe in grassy places, this agrimony is
sometimes found wild in eastern North America. No doubt it was brought to the
U.S. by early colonists for medicinal purposes. It is also known as “church
steeples” and sticklewort.
It was formerly used to treat snakebite, and the flowers were put in lemonade
to cure colds.
The fragment agrimony (Agrimonia odorata) can also be used for dyeing. It
1 LB (.5kG) OR ABOUT 2 QTS LEAVES AND has larger, paler flowers and grows in the shade in acid soils.
STALKS, FRESHLY CHOPPED
Mordant: Alum gives yellow, chrome gives gold.

36
Method. Put leaves and stalks in cold water and heat slowly. Simmer for 1 to 14
hours. Strain off the plant material and cool the liquor. Enter the clean, wetted
wool and return bath to the simmer. Simmer for about | hour. Rinse the wool
twice and dry.
Elsie Davenport, an English dyer, says that agrimony gathered in Devon gave
orange.

OAK
Black Oak — Quercus velutina formerly known as Q. tinctoria
Red Oak — Q. borealis
White Oak — Q. alba
English Oak — Q. robur

The oaks are distributed widely over the temperate and subtropical parts of
Europe and North America, and the family is too well known by its acorns to
merit detailed description here. The black oak is distinguished by downy twigs
and hairy buds; the leaves are dark green and glossy above, pale and downy
below. The red oak has hairless twigs and leaves that are dull green above and
downy below, with brown hairs in the vein axils. The acorn cup is very shallow.
The leaves of the red oak turn red in autumn, whereas the white oak turns purple
and the English and black oak turn soft brown.
The black, white, and red oak are common in the United States. The black
oak is not indigenous in Britain, and while the red is found in parks and gardens,
the English or common oak is native, and was formerly much planted to provide
the timber for ships and houses.
The dye is obtained from the inner bark, which was stripped and prepared into
an extract (that from the black oak being called quercitron), especially in the
mid-eighteenth century. The black oak extract was used in a complicated recipe
with other substances to give black, or more simply yellow to orange, while the
extract from red oak produced yellows, and that from white oak gave browns.
Quercitron can still be bought from dye houses.
Dyers using fresh bark should strip it from felled trees and take out the soft
inner bark. I have boiled it fresh, but it is more ofted dried and powdered. I have
had much better colors from red and black oak, but the English oak is a stand-
by for browns.
The oaks will also dye silk, and a recipe for cotton is given on page 93.

Mordant: Oaks need no mordant to make buff-browns because of the tannin in

the bark, and oak galls can also be used without a mordant to produce brown if
they are pounded with a hammer. Alum, gives yellow, chrome gives gold, and
on silk tin gives orange.

Method: Put the bark in cold water and heat slowly. Simmer for | to 12 hours. 1 LB (.5 kG) FRESH BARK
Strain off the bark and cool the liquor. Enter the clean, wetted wool and return OR
bath to the simmer. Simmer for | hour. Rinse the wool twice and dry. Y4 oz (7G) EXTRACT
Prolonged boiling brings out the tannin and dulls the brighter colors.

37
 NETTLE
Urtica dioica

The common nettle, which is too well known as a garden weed and which is
used as a vegetable in some European countries, will yield a soft greenish yellow
dye. It is a real satisfaction to make some use of this pernicious intruder, but
those who can keep their gardens free of it will find plenty in the hedgerows. It is
easily identified — it gave rise to the following verse by the seventeenth century
g poet Aaron Hill:
BES
Si e 4 ZS

AINE
PZ UZ
oe
SS a Tenderhearted stroke a nettle
Sn
Letin

A
IN And it stings you for your pains
ia Grasp it like a man of mettle
VINA %
JENA MG)\Ay
yl
F
And it soft as silk remains

=
Ss

SS
a But I still prefer to wear gloves!

ay,WW S
Ny
The fresh green tops are best for dyeing.

pes
gy Mordant: Alum gives yellow-green, iron gives gray-green.
—SS
Wier:
BOS
IS
aSESS
Z PS
INEESSZ Vg LFJ
CA Z
Method: The simultaneous method of dyeing is preferable here. Put the tops ina
mesh bag (the bulk will be reduced quickly when the nettles are in the bath) and
enter in the bath together with the clean,wetted wool. Slowly bring bath to the
14-2 PKS OR ABOUT A PAILFUL FRESH simmer and simmer wool and nettles for 2 to % hour. Lift the bag out of the
NETTLE TOPS
bath frequently and work the wool to keep the dyeing even. Rinse the wool twice
and dry.

BRACKEN OR BRAKE
Pteridium aquilinum

A common coarse fern reaching 4 or more feet high, bracken is distributed

over most of the globe in waste places. When young, it is distinguished by its
coiled fronds like wrought-iron work or curled fingers, and when older by its
stiff harsh stem. The best dye is obtained from the young fronds just as they are
unfolding, but I have obtained good color right up to August by using only the
eae top 6 inches or so. I have read that the roots make a black dye, but I have not
y= eFld
«
\Aidl been able to obtain this. The same shoots do make a good gray dye for silk.
AVAN
UILice
Vp SN NS A, IW
E)
yy

SO NY hi
iii e
IWS Mordant: Alum gives yellowish green, chrome gives a rich, warm lime green.

Method: If you use tops, put them in cold water and heat slowly. Simmer for %4
hour. If you use young shoots, only steep them in hot water for 1% to 2 hours
2 .BS (1 KG). YOUNG SHOOTS OR TOPS instead of simmering. Strain off the shoots or tops and cool the liquor. Enter the
OF OLDER PLANTS clean, wetted wool and bring bath to the simmer. Simmer for % hour. Rinse the
wool twice and dry.

38
LILY OF THE VALLEY
Convallaria majalis

A low-growing, rapidly spreading garden flower that produces a famous

scent, lily of the valley loves shade and throws up its spikes of scented white bells
in spring. The leaves are good for yellow dye from spring right through summer,
until they begin to turn yellowish,when they give a bronze gold. In order not to
reduce the garden stock, I often wait until July, when the leaves have had a
chance to feed the rhizomes. The plant multiplies so quickly, however, that what
you use will be replaced. Silk can be dyed by the same recipe as wool.

Mordant: Alum gives soft to gold yellow, chrome gives a strong warm gold,
almost bronze, with autumn leaves.

Method: Soak the leaves overnight before using or chop and put them fresh into
cold water. Heat slowly and simmer for 2 to % hour. Strain off the leaves and
cool the liquor. Enter the clean, wetted wool and return bath to the simmer.
Simmer for 20 minutes, 40 minutes, or | hour, according to the depth of color Y2 1B (250G) or '2 PK LEAVES
desired. Rinse the wool twice and dry.
If a pinch of lime is added to the bath before entering the alum-mordanted A PINCH OF LIME (OPTIONAL)
wool, the color tends toward a pale, soft apple green.

BLOODROOT
Sanguinaria canadensis

This flower of rich woods and shaded banks is found in North America from
Nova Scotia to Manitoba and Nebraska and south to Florida. It is grown in
British and American gardens for its graceful flowers. From the swollen roots or
rhizomes rise on single stems fan-shaped leaves of five to nine lobes and white
flowers, with eight to sixteen long petals, that bloom in April and May. The
petals fall quickly, but the plant can be recognized in summer by its fruit, a
capsule about an inch long, pointed at both ends.
The dye was used by the Indians and is probably what the Ojibwa used to dye
porcupine quills red. Fresh root was used to color wooden implements yellow. I
have had no opportunity to dry the roots, but as soon as the plant in my garden
has increased, I shall experiment with this. Dried roots are available from some
herb houses.

Mordant: Alum gives red-orange, tin gives pinkish reds.

Method: The simultaneous method of dyeing is preferable for bloodroot. Cut

the roots into small pieces and soak overnight or at least a few hours in the water
to be used for dyeing. Then put the pieces in a mesh bag and enter together with
the clean, wetted wool. Slowly bring bath to the simmer and simmer wool and 5-6 oz (150-180G) or 2 ROOTS, FRESHLY
roots 4 to % hour. Lift the bag out of the bath frequently and work the wool to CUT

keep the dyeing even. Rinse the wool twice and dry.

39
 DOG’S MERCURY
Mercurialis perennis

This is a slightly hairy upright perennial that grows to a foot in height from
small rhizomes. It is common in shady woods and hedges and as a garden weed
in Britain. The tiny green male and female flowers grow on separate plants, and
the pollen is wind-borne. It is one of the few plants that flourish in beech woods.
Dog’s mercury can only be used young; after spring is over it gives a dull color.

Mordant: Alum gives yellow.

Method: The simultaneous method of dyeing is preferable here. Put the plant in
1-12 PKs OR ABOUT A PAILFUL OF THE a mesh bag (the bulk will be reduced quickly when the plant is in the bath) and
WHOLE PLANT, CUT OFF ABOVE GROUND enter together with the clean, wetted wool. Slowly bring bath to the simmer and
WITH SHEARS OR SCISSORS AND CHOPPED simmer wool and dog’s mercury for 2 to % hour. Lift the bag out of the bath
ROUGHLY INTO I- OR 2-INCH LENGTHS frequently and work the wool to keep the dyeing even. Rinse the wool twice and
dry.

HEMLOCK
Western Hemlock — Tsuga heterophylla
Common or Northern Hemlock — T. canadensis
Southern Hemlock — T. caroliniana

The hemlocks are trees of temperate North America, especially the Pacific
coast for western hemlock, but now planted extensively in Britain. The western
hemlock was introduced into Britain in the mid-nineteenth century by John
Jeffrey for the Oregon Association of Edinburgh, which was formed to further
the introduction of Pacific-coast trees. Queen Victoria wanted it to be named
after her late husband. The graceful eastern hemlocks are mostly grown for their
beauty. Judiciously pruned, they also make superb hedges.
The hemlocks are large evergreens with small cones rather like larch cones
but pendant, not erect. The bark, which is the part used for dye, is russet brown;
later it becomes darker and split, furrowed with scaly ridges. The bark of 7.
canadensis has been widely used for tanning leather.

Mordant: Chrome gives a fine rose-tan.

3 tps (1.5kG) oR ABouT | PK BARK,
FRESH OR DRY Method. Break up the bark (especially the inner bark) and soak overnight in the
water to be used for dyeing. Then heat the bath slowly and simmer for | to 1%
A PINCH OF ALUM (OPTIONAL) hours. Do not overboil or the color will be browned. Strain off the bark and
cool the liquor. Add a pinch of alum if you wish to bring out an orange color.
AFTERBATH Enter the clean, wetted wool and return bath to the simmer. Simmer for 1'4
3 TBSP VINEGAR PER GAL OF WATER hours. The rose-tan color of chromed wool can be enhanced by steeping in an
afterbath of vinegar. Rinse the wool twice and dry.

40
ANCHUSA OR ALKANET
Alkanna tinctoria or Anchusa tinctoria or A. officinalis }
Various forms of anchusa (which is also known as alkanna, alcanea, and
bugloss) grow wild in Europe and Britain, and garden forms have been
developed for the fine blue of the flowers. It is an erect, very hairy stemmed
AY
plant that rises to 2 feet or more, with hairy single-pointed leaves swathing the
stem. The flowers are like large, incredibly blue forget-me-nots, blooming
usually in June. Pliny mentioned it as a dye plant, and Gerard’s Herbal
ee
Vie
recommended it ‘“‘drunke with hot beere,’ and said ‘“‘The Gentlewomen of
France do paint their faces with these roots.”
Anchusa used to be cultivated as a dye plant in Europe, and early settlers in
North America probably brought it over for medicinal use but maybe as a dye
too. But the red it produces is rather fugitive, and the faster madder would be
preferred where available. I grow it in my garden for its flowers. The roots have
yielded me only a dull red hardly worth the trouble, so I use dried roots or an
extract obtained from dye houses for dyeing. 2 CUPS DRIED ROOTS
OR
Mordant: Alum gives a range from tan-red to purple-red and gray. An extra Y2 oz (15G)ALKANET EXTRACT DISSOLVED
tablespoon of cream of tartar in the dyebath helps. IN WATER OR ALCOHOL (1 HAVE OBTAINED
THE BEST PURPLE-REDS WITH ALCOHOL,
Method: Add the extract solution to the bath and heat until the extract is BUT A LARGE QUANTITY OF WOOL WOULD
thoroughly dissolved or boil the roots for 2 hours and strain. Cool the liquor. REQUIRE TOO MUCH TO BE PRACTICAL)
Enter the clean, wetted wool and return bath to the simmer. Simmer for 20 to 40
minutes, according to the depth of color desired. Dry the wool without rinsing. AFTERBATH
To preserve the blue color, enter the wool in an alkaline afterbath of ammonia 2 TBSP AMMONIA
for about a minute. To bring out the purple to red shades, dip the wool briefly in OR
an acid bath. (Strengthen the ammonia solution if the water is very soft and the 3 TBSP ACETIC ACID PER 2 GAL OF WATER
acetic acid if the water is hard.) Rinse the wool thoroughly and dry.

ru
 IVY
Hedera helix

The familiar ivy is indigenous to Europe including Britain and to Asia, and is
also now common in North America. The shining leather-like green leaves
(sometimes variegated in cultivated kinds) with three to five lobes and the
aerial roots that enable it to climb trees and walls make it easy to identify. The
flowers, however, in small greenish yellow clusters, are far from obvious. Since
not all kinds of ivy berry freely, many people are unaware what the fruit of the
ivy is. I find that the loosely growing hedgerow type with scarcely lobed leaves
yields most berries. In Europe the berries must be picked in February or March,
when they are quite ripe and as black as possible — at any other time they give
disappointing results. Gerard in his Herbal suggests gathering “‘after the Winter
Solstice,” and recommends an infusion for ‘‘waterish eies.”’

Mordant: None necessary, but alum may be used for yellow-green and iron
added to the dyebath gives greenish gray.

6 oz (180G) RIPE BERRIES Method: Steep the berries overnight in the water to be used for dyeing. Heat
slowly and simmer for | hour. Strain off the berries and cool the liquor. Enter
Y4 TSP FERROUS SULFATE FOR GREENISH the clean, wetted wool and return bath to the simmer. Simmer for 2 hour. Fora
GRAY greenish gray, add iron to the bath and simmer for 10 to 30 minutes. Rinse the
wool twice and dry.

42
Recipes For Summer

QUEEN OF THE MEADOW OR MEADOWSWEET

Filipendula ulmaria

This is a 3-to 6-foot-tall perennial that grows abundantly in damp and woods
in both North Europe and Asia, and as a garden flower and as a wild escape in
many parts of the United States. A frothy mass of creamy white flowers grows
on top of reddish ribbed stems. The plant has up to five pairs of saw-edged
leaflets on the lower leaves, and between these are distinctive pairs of little
leaflets. Where the leaf springs from the stem are leafy stipules. Gerard, in his
Herbal of 1597, said of queen of the meadow, “‘The leaves and floures farre
excell all other strowing herbs, for to decke up houses; for the smell thereof
meketh the heart merrie, delighteth the senses.”
Meadowsweet roots were used in the Hebrides and other northern countries
for black, but I get much better results from iris roots or alder bark. Winifred
Shand, a Scottish rural specialist, also says the stalks and leaves give a navy
blue, but I have not obtained it.

Mordant: Alum gives greenish yellow, iron added to the dyebath gives green.

Method: The simultaneous method of dying is preferable here. Put the tops ina
mesh bag immediately after picking and enter together with the clean, wetted
wool. Slowly bring bath to the simmer and simmer wool and flowers for 2 to | Y2 PK OR ABOUT %4 PAIL TOPS JUST INTO
hour according to the depth of color desired.) Lift the bag out of the bath FLOWER
frequently and work the wool to keep the dyeing even. The color can be made
more green by the addition of a few crystals of iron for the last 15 minutes. A PINCH OF FERROUS SULFATE (FOR GREEN)
Rinse the wool twice and dry.

43
 TANSY
Tanacetum vulgare

A |- to 3-foot-high straight plant with ribbed stems, tansy is common on

waste places and roadsides and is known by its distinctive scent like strong hot
lemon. It used to be grown in cottage gardens for cooking and as a cure for
colds. The fernlike leaves are covered with tiny glands, giving it a slightly gray
appearance. The mustard-yellow flower heads are held in a cup of bracts and are
apparently without petals, so they resemble a cluster of flat cushions. Tansy
flowers later than ragwort (see page 46) and can be used as an alternative to it,
though the color is not so strong. The plant can be dried, and keeps its scent.

Mordant: Alum gives yellow.

Method: If you cannot use the flower heads quite fresh, put them in the bath
water until you are ready. Heat the bath slowly and simmer for 2 hour. Strain
off the flower heads and cool the liquor. Enter the clean, wetted wool and return
Y-1 1B (250G:5kG) or 2 PK FULLY bath to the simmer. Simmer until the desired color is obtained. Rinse twice and
FLOWERING HEADS WITH BRACTS dry. The color will be a stronger, less clear yellow if you have soaked the flowers
beforehand.

HORSETAIL OR MARES’ TAIL

Equisetum species

Horsetail is one of the most primitive plants still with us. A giant form of it
SVE NW@
must have existed over large land areas in the aeons before the more complex
YI? ?GG plants developed. The kind dyers use grows in ditches and waste places,
NED, ARN ore
SZ Uy
RS especially where it is damp. It is easily recognizable: it resembles a miniature fir
Weary IZ
tree about 6 to 10 inches high, with rings of green ““branches”’ springing in circles
at decreasing intervals up the stem. The reproductive stalks, which carry long
pollen caps on top and have paler stems, are not used in dyeing. The green stalks
are cut off at ground level.

Mordant: Alum gives slightly yellowish green.

Method: Use very fresh plants. They can be simmered in the usual way, but with
this plant, as with lichens, the contact method of dyeing is better. Put a layer of
horsetails on the bottom of an enamel pan and cover with about a quarter of the
wool. Then add another layer of horsetails, another layer of wool, and so on.
Y-1 PK HORSETAIL PLANTS Pour the water over all and heat slowly. Simmer together for up to % hour, but
not too long, as this will dull the color. A brighter green can be obtained with an
AFTERBATH afterbath of copper sulfate at this point. Rinse the wool twice and dry.
| TSP COPPER SULFATE PER GAL OF WATER Horsetails are said to be suitable for top-dyeing with blue but I have not tried
it.

44
DAY LILY
Hemerocallis hybrids

This well-known perennial is grown mostly as a garden flower in Europe

but now grows rampantly wild over parts of the United States. The many
hybrids are derived from Japanese and Chinese species. They have long strap-
like pointed leaves and a small cluster of lily-like flowers in orange, peach, or
yellow shades, and grow about 2 to 4 feet high. They flower from June to
September; each flower opens, blooms, and dies in one day, hence the name.
They are best gathered towards the end of the day, when a pressed bloom will
give a blue stain to paper. The buds are said to be a food delicacy.
Mordant: Alum gives yellow, tin gives bright yellow, copper sulfate gives blue-
green with longer simmering.
Method: If you cannot use the flower heads at once, put them in a mesh bag in
water and use this water as the dyebath. The simultaneous method is used. Enter
the clean, wetted wool. Slowly bring bath to the simmer and simmer wool and 1 to 2 pT FLOWER HEADS PRESSED DOWN
flowers for 20 to 45 minutes, or longer if blue-green is required. In this case a
few crystals of iron can be added for the last 15 minutes. Rinse the wool twice A SMALL PINCH OF FERROUS SULFATE
and dry.

WELD
Reseda luteola

WZ XN
Weld is known by a variety of names including dyer’s rocket, dyer’s weed, and \
NS
We
or) 4:
FE RY
A)
\
at
IN
S
N
wild mignonette. For many centuries it was used as a dye plant in Britain, being N /
VA
Wer
AYNU
we
Ni!
&
xh
N
Ayra
q
Sf 4

indigenous, but it was also cultivated; Rhind (in 1855) said the cultivated variety N
ye
NZ
Wy
contained more coloring matter. It is still found wild, especially on the chalk a SUE,

Downs. It consists of 112 - to 3-foot spike of tiny yellowish green flowers with R Ap
Win
deeply divided leaves. The wild plant is not scented like the garden mignonette q

but is a larger edition of similar form. Weld is perhaps the best of the British ih Ly
plants for dye fastness. It is very good for dyeing when dried, and can be NNW
H

f No
< Yl f
NAY ig
gathered and hung up for winter use. It must be gathered before it seeds, for then TEs
© eg AW
vy, way LAN 4,
PISA!
ae
—=

it loses its coloring properties. Weld is also a good dye for silk, mordanted and
treated in the same way as wool. A recipe for dyeing cotton is given on page 90. SSSA.
LY GHG,
Mordant: Alum with cream of tartar gives lemon yellow, chrome gives golden- Ve
yellow, tin gives bright orange-yellow, and iron added to the dyebath gives olive
with alum-mordanted wool.

Method: Put the weld in cold water and heat slowly for 2 to 3 hours. Strain off Y2 PK OR 2-44 PAIL CHOPPED UP WHOLE
the plant and cool the liquor. Enter the clean, wetted wool and return bath to PLANTS, PREFERABLY PICKED JUST BEFORE
the simmer. Simmer for about an hour according to the depth of color desired. THEY FLOWER
For olive, add iron fot the last 15 minutes. Rinse the wool twice and dry.
In the traditional industry, a little lime was added to the brew, but I have not Y. TSP FERROUS SULFATE (FOR OLIVE)
tried it.

45
 YELLOW FLAG IRIS
Iris pseudacorus

This handsome plant, whose name came from the Greek i-ris, meaning
rainbow, can grow up to 6 feet high, but is more commonly 3 feet high. It is
found wild in Britain and as an escape in parts of the United States in ponds,
slow rivers, and marshes. Its long, swordlike leaves and head of three up-curving
bearded plumes and three down-bending banners or “‘falls’”’ are unmistakable.
Although bisexual, the flower cannot pollinate itself. I have not been able to
obtain a color from many garden varieties, nor from the blue iris sibirica. The
black dye from the yellow flag iris was until recently used in the Hebrides for the
black garments frequently worn by the women of the islands.

Mordant: Iron gives black.

Method: | have experimented with using the brown outer covering of the root,
the small rootlets, and the rhizomes alone, but have not found much difference,
so I just use the whole root, which I cut up with strong scissors. Put the roots in
cold water and heat slowly. Simmer for 1 to 2 hours. Strain off the roots and
1-2 Las (.5-1 kG) or 2-4 QTs ROOTS, cool the liquor. Enter the clean, wetted wool and return to the simmer. A gray
CHOPPED UP color is obtained quickly, a real black after 2 to 3 hours.Rinse the wool twice
and dry.

RAGWORT OR TANSY RAGWORT

Senecio jacobaea 4

A tall weed of waste places and neglected fields, also called ragweed (but not
to be confused with the ragweed, hogweed, or bitterweed of the United States),
this is common over Europe and is somewhat of an escape in eastern North
America. The stiff upright stems, growing to 2 or 2/2 feet, carry much-divided
curving leaves and clusters of small yellow daisy-like heads, with a ragged
corolla of strong yellow. The plant has a strong, rather unpleasant smell and is
redolent of high summer. There are 1,200 species of Senecio around the world
and many of them probably yield a dye but the others I have tried are not so
strong.

Mordant: Alum gives strong yellow, iron added to the dyebath gives green.

Method: The heads are best for yellow, but the whole upper part of the plant
l QT FLOWER HEADS OR | PK WHOLE UPPER may be used for green. Put the plant in cold water and heat slowly. Simmer for
PART OF PLANT Y% hour. Strain off the plant and cool the liquor.
For yellow, enter the clean, wetted wool and return bath to the simmer only
SCANT 2 TSP FERROUS SULFATE (FOR until the wool has absorbed the color. Prolonged simmering will brown the
GREEN) color. For green, enter the wool and return bath to the simmer. Simmer until a
good depth of color has been obtained. Add the iron for the last 15 minutes. Too
much iron or prolonged boiling will gray the color. Rinse the wool twice and
dry.

46
ST.-JOHN’S WORT
Hypericum species e

St.-John’s-wort is a wild flower of the pastures and waysides over Europe and
much of North America. Several cultivated varieties give dye. The stems are
clothed with opposite pairs of lanceolate leaves, lighter below and capped with
five yellow shining flowers that open from a red-tinged bud to a cupped head in
July and August. But this plant has one quite distinctive feature to identify. If
you hold the leaves up to the light, you can see that the tissue is almost
perforated by pin-point holes; hence the old name perforata. Traditionally, the
flower heads were used to obtain a red dye, which Violetta Thurston (who
recorded plant dyes in England many years ago) says can be extracted with
acetic acid. As I have not been very successful with this color, I give the recipe
for yellow, for which the whole of the tops can be used. They do not need to be
flowering.

Mordant: Alum gives clear medium yellow, chrome gives strong buttercup
yellow.

Method: | find that the tips of the sprays in early summer before the flowers
appear give a very good dye but the plant can be used right through until autumn
with the flower heads on. The simultaneous method is preferable. Put the tips in
a mesh bag and enter together with the clean, wetted wool. Slowly bring bath to
the simmer and simmer wool and plant for 2 hour or until a strong clear color is 1 Qt (PACKED) TIPS; THEY DO NOT NEED TO
obtained. Lift the bag out of the bath frequently and work the wool to keep the BE FLOWERING
dyeing even. Rinse the wool twice and dry.

DAHLIA
Dahlia species

The familiar dahlias of flower gardens have an extraordinarily strong dye (for
flowers) in their petals. The color varies with the color ofthe petals, from yellow
to orange-red. I have dyed an ounce of wool with one large dahlia head ready to
be thrown out after a week in a vase, so the flowers serve a double purpose and
one is spared the rather painful task of ripping off heads in full flower for dye.
The dye is very fast when used on chrome-mordanted wool. The common red
geranium (Pelargonium species) gives a similar range of color by the same
recipe.

Mordant: Alum gives yellow to bronze-gold, chrome gives tan to orange-red.

Method: Put flower heads in cold water and heat slowly. Simmer for 12 to 15
minutes. Strain off the heads and cool the liquor. Enter the clean, wetted wool
and return bath to the simmer. Simmer for 12 to 20 minutes for yellows, longer
for bronze or red. Rinse the wool twice and dry. 10-30 FLOWER HEADS, DEPENDING ON SIZE
The simultaneous method ofdyeing can also be used.

47
 DYER’S GREENWOOD
Genista tinctoria -

Dyer’s broom, dyer’s weed, woodwaxen, woad-waxen, and greenweed are some
of the names by which this plant is known. ([t 1s not to be confused with weld,
which is also called dyer’s weed.) The names greenwood and woad-waxen refer
to old custom of using it over indigo or woad to make green. A 4- to 5-foot
shrub, it is found in Europe and Asia, and grows wild on sandy soil on the
temperate east coast of America. Before it became naturalized in the United
States, it was imported ground, in casks. Brought to the new world for dye
purposes, the plant escaped to grow wild there. In Salem, Massachusetts, site of
the famous New England witch trials, it was called ‘“‘witches blood” because it
bloomed on Gallows Hill. It is still common in those parts. It is recognizably of
the broom family but has very small single leaves springing, almost without
stem, from the light branches. The flower is yellow and pealike, and continues to
Y. LB (250cG) or 2 PK FLOWERING TOPS, flower all summer if pruned back well. It needs sun to thrive. It is one of the
INCLUDING SMALL LEAVES AND STEMS, CUT surest, most firm yellow vegetable dyes.
UP LIGHTLY
Mordant: Alum gives clear light yellow, chrome gives warm yellow.

Method: Put the tops in cold water and heat slowly. Simmer for | hour. Strain
off the tops and cool the liquor. Enter the clean, wetted wool and return bath to
the simmer. Simmer for up to | hour, according to the depth of color desired.
Rinse the wool twice and dry.

GOLDENROD
Solidago species, especially S. canadensis

Goldenrod is a 2- to 5-foot perennial with tiny yellow daisy-like florets

frothed into flower heads. It grows wild in many parts of North America and
Europe and is grown in country gardens of both continents. It has a hot strong
smell. The flower heads, cut or broken off with some stem, are used when they
are just coming into flower, and some part of the plant — sprays lower down the
stem — can be found flowering over most of the summer. The flowers can be
Y) tp (250c) or 2 PK FRESH FLOWER dried in the shade for future use, but are better fresh. Any part of the plant will
HEADS, OR DOUBLE THIS QUANTITY OF give a dye, but the yellow color is best from the sprays of flower heads.
STEMS AND LEAVES, BROKEN UP
Mordant: Alum gives clear lemon yellow to tan-yellow, chrome gives warm old
| TSP FERROUS SULFATE (FOR YELLOW- gold. Iron added to the dyebath with stems and leaves gives yellow-green.
GREEN)
Method: If you cannot use the flower heads quite fresh, put them in the bath
AFTERBATH (FOR TAN-YELLOW) water until you are ready. Heat the bath slowly and simmer for % to 1 hour.
A PINCH OF CHROME Strain off the plant and cool the liquor. Enter the clean, wetted wool and return
AND bath to the simmer. Simmer for 10 to 20 minutes or more according to the depth
A FEW DROPS ACETIC ACID PER GAL OF of color desired. To obtain green, add iron when a strong color has been
WATER obtained and simmer 15 minutes more. To obtain a deep tan-yellow with alum-
mordanted wool, enter it in a chrome afterbath and simmer covered for 15 to 45

48
minutes according to the depth of color desired. Rinse the wool twice and dry
(away from the light if you have used chrome).
The simultaneous method ofdyeing can also be used.

PRICKLY-PEAR CACTUS
Opuntia polycantha

There are some 300 Opuntia species native to North and South America but I
have tried only this. This species, with fat pear-shaped fruits sprouting from
flattish gray-green pads with thin spiny prickles, grows around the Mediterra-
nean (where people carefully peel the prickled outer skin of the fruit to savor the
soft flesh within) and in New Mexico, Arizona, and other southern states. It is
easily propagated by sticking a cut “pad,” or joint, in sandy soil.

Mordant: None necessary.

Method: The American Indians are said to rub the fruits in the sand with their
feet to remove the prickles — I peel them with leather gloves on. Mash or pound
the fruit in a bucket and add the water. The bucket should be plastic
or pottery, not metal. Enter the clean, wetted wool and leave the whole in
a warm place for 10 days or longer to ferment. Work the wool from time to
time. Rinse the wool and dry. If, after rinsing, a deeper color is required, repeat
1 LB (.SKG) or 1% PKs FRESH CACTUS
the process: put the dyed wool in a new bath of fresh fruit and leave for another
FRUITS
10 days or longer. No simmering is involved as this causes the reds and pinks to
go tan.

MARIGOLD
Tagetes species

These marigolds are different from the marsh marigold (Ca/tha palustris),
which also makes a dye. They are yellow to orange flowers common in Britain,
and indigenous to the southwestern United States, Mexico, and South America.
They have been developed into many varieties of garden flower. Marigolds are
annuals, and they flower so freely that I do not mind using some from my
garden for dye. However, cold winters tend to kill the seed. The lower leaves are
stalked, the upper ones clasp the stem. The conspicuous flower heads with
yellow corolla are the source of the dye. (The marigold should not be confused
with yellow camomile, which also makes a dye — camomile is smaller and has
deeply divided leaves.) Silk can be dyed in the same way as wool. A recipe for
dyeing cotton is given on page 91.

Mordant: Alum gives yellow, chrome gives warm golden yellow.

Method: Put the heads in cold water and heat slowly. Simmer for % hour. Strain
off the heads and cool the liquor. Enter the clean, wetted wool and return bath to 1 1B (.5kG) oR 2 PK FRESH FLOWER HEADS.
the simmer. Simmer for % to 1 hour. Keep covered if you are using chrome- IF DRIED FLOWER HEADS ARE USED, REDUCE
mordanted wool. Rinse the wool twice and dry. THE QUANTITY SLIGHTLY
The simultaneous method ofdyeing may also be used.

49
 COREOPSIS OR CALLIOPSIS
Coreopsis tinctoria also known as C. marmorata

Coreopsis (from the Greek meaning ‘‘buglike’’) is also called tickseed. C.

tinctoria is one of 70 species of coreopsis native to America, where it is found
both wild and cultivated. In Britain it is usually a garden plant, which is annual
but seeds itself freely; others are perennial, single or double. The rather glabrous
l- to 3-foot-high plant has leaves deeply divided into linear lobes, and heads % to
3 inches across. It flowers from July to October. Many colors of garden
varieties, from yellow through crimson to maroon, have been bred from the
original, which has a center disc and ray of petals.

Mordant: Chrome gives burnt orange, tin gives bright yellow.

Method: The simultaneous method of dyeing is preferable here. Put the flower
heads in a mesh bag and enter together with the clean, wetted wool. Soft water is
especially important for coreopsis. Slowly bring bath to the simmer and simmer
wool and flower heads for 20 minutes or longer, according to the depth of color
desired. Lift the bag out of the bath frequently and work the wool to keep the
dyeing even. Rinse the wool twice and dry.
Wool freshly mordanted with tin and cream of tartar is best but I have used
wool formerly mordanted and just added a pinch of cream of tartar to the
Y) PK FLOWER HEADS simmering bath. In any case, with tin and cream of tartar rinse in soapy water
first, then in clear water, and dry.
4

BROOM
Cytisus, Genista, and Spartium species

Genista gave its name to the Plantagenet kings, and a sprig of this broom is
worn by the young Richard II in the lovely Wilton diptych in the National
Gallery, London. Hardy in the central United States and Europe, the Spartium
species is distinguished from the others by its height — up to 10 feet — its
sparsely leaved branches, and its one-lipped calyx. Cytisus, which needs a mild
climate, has a wider range of flower colors, including even purple. Of the three,
the traditional Genista tinctoria is much the best dye plant, but most of the
varieties commonly called broom that have a yellow, pealike flower will give a
yellow dye from the flowering tips. The flowering tips with the green stems will
give a greenish yellow. For a pure yellow, use the flower heads alone. In
Scotland broom has long been used over indigo for a good green.

Mordant: Alum gives yellow, chrome gives deep yellow.

Method: If you cannot use the tips quite fresh, put them in the bath water until
1% tas (.75KG) or | PK BRANCH TIPS, you are ready. Heat the bath slowly and simmer for up to | hour. As the tips are
CHOPPED a fragile part of the plant, however, the freshest color will be obtained by using
the simultaneous method of dyeing.

50
Recipes For Autumn

CYPRESS
Chamaecyparis species especially C. Jawsoniana

These pointed, feathery evergreens have long been associated with church-
yards, and their distinctive dark cone-shape patterns the landscape. One of the
commonest species, /awsoniana, is a native of the Pacific coast of the United
States but is hardy in colder regions. It is tall with flat, spreading fronds, in
contrast to the erect fronds of the bluish, glabrous species, which may also yield
dyes. Gather the pale tan-orange cones before they fall from the trees.

Mordant: Alum or chrome gives bright tan.

Method: The simultaneous method of dyeing is preferable here. Put the cones in l QT OR MORE RIPE CONES
a mesh bag and enter together with the clean, wetted wool. Slowly bring bath to
the simmer and simmer wool and cones for 40 minutes or longer. Lift the bag Y4 TSP STANNOUS CHLORIDE
out of the bath frequently and work the wool to keep the dyeing even. To OR
sharpen the color, you can add tin for the last 15 minutes. To dull the color, use Y4 TSP FERROUS SULFATE (OPTIONAL)
iron instead in the same way. Rinse the wool twice and dry.

51
 BLACK WILLOW
Salix nigra

The black willow is native to North America but is also found in Europe and
Britain. It has long, pendulous branches, downy twigs, and toothed leaves that
are dark green above and almost bluish underneath. The male and female
catkins grow on different trees. I find that black willow gives a rosier color than
white willow, which is much more common in Britain and Europe.

1-2 QTS BARK Mordant: Alum gives rosy tan, chrome gives warm brown.

AFTERBATH Method: Soak the bark overnight in the water to be used for dyeing. Then heat
SCANT 8 TSP FERROUS SULFATE the bath slowly and simmer for 2 hours. Strain off the bark and cool the liquor.
AND Enter the clean, wetted wool and return bath to the simmer. Simmer for 2 hour.
2 TBSP VINEGAR PER GAL OF WATER Without rinsing, enter the wool immediately in the afterbath, which should be
simmering. Simmer for 10 minutes. Rinse the wool twice and dry.

WILD GRAPE VINE

Vitis species

The wild vine that I found in the mountains of Pennsylvania is only one of
many grape species common to different parts of the United States, where
delicious wine is produced from some kinds. The leaves of the wild vine I found
are smaller and the grapes very much smaller than those of the cultivated Old
World types, but with its tendrils the plant climbs up out of the hillside
undergrowth into the sunlight.
It is interesting to note that the French vineyards were almost destroyed by
the grape root louse until it was found that native American species were
immune to the pest. Now most Old World grapes are grafted on cuttings or
young plants of American stock in areas where the root louse is prevalent.

Mordant: Alum gives lavender to purplish gray, chrome gives reddish purple.

Method: The berries crushed make a fairly effective stain, but in order to get the
color thoroughly absorbed into the wool, it is necessary to simmer it. The
simultaneous method is best. Put the grapes in a mesh bag and ‘enter together
with the clean, wetted wool. Slowly bring bath to the simmer and simmer wool
3-4 QTS GRAPES, CRUSHED and grapes for 15 to 30 minutes. Lift the bag out of the bath frequently and work
the wool to keep the dyeing even. To bring out the purple, enter the wool in a
AFTERBATH (FOR PURPLE) warm acid afterbath for about 10 minutes. Simmering is not necessary here. I
3 TBSP ACETIC ACID PER ¥2 GAL OF WATER find it quite effective to dry the wool slowly before steeping and then rinse it
thoroughly in warm water and dry again.

52
BLACK CURRANT
Ribes nigrum .

The common garden black currant, too well known to merit description, gives
a number of pleasant colors. I put an open pan or cooking dish of the freshly
gathered currants in a very low oven to draw out the juice, which contains the
dye, and strain off the berries, which lose some of their flavor but can still be
used combined with other fruit in pies or other dishes. In winter I use the liquid
from bottled or canned currants. The colors are beautiful but not very fast.

Mordant: Alum gives deep lilac, tin gives purple.

Method: The simultaneous method of dyeing is preferable here. Put the wool in
the bath and slowly bring it to the simmer. Simmer wool and juice for % to 1
hour. As the syrupy juice is apt to stick to the pan, be sure to work the wool
frequently. Make the bath up to 2/3 gallon (not the usual full gallon) with
additional water if it boils away. Leave the wool soaking in the bath for several 1/3 GAL BLACK CURRANT JUICE OR
hours. By then alum-mordanted wool will be a deep heather pink, which rinses CRUSHED BLACK CURRANTS MADE UP TO
out to strong lilac. Tin-mordanted wool will be a deep purple which rinses out 2/3 GAL WITH WATER
(use soapy water) to a soft purple. Dry.

LARCH
Larix species

Larch, one of the deciduous members of the pine family, yields a useful if not
very exciting dye for those who need to gather dye material to use indoors in
winter. It has a dark, furrowed, scaly bark (redder in the Japanese larch). The
leaves, very bright yellow-green in spring, are arranged spirally in clusters on
short spurs. The bright green cones (bluish in the Japanese form) are % to 12
inches long. The soft needles can be gathered when green and stored, or can be
picked up where they fall in piles in autumn.

Mordant: Alum gives brown.

Method: Put the needles in cold water and heat slowly. Simmer for 1 hours.
Strain off the needles and cool the liquor. Enter the clean, wetted wool and
return bath to the simmer. Simmer until the desired depth of color is obtained. 1 cB (.5kG) or 2 PK NEEDLES
Rinse the wool twice and dry.

53
 NORWAY MAPLE
Acer platanoides

This large tree with a head that spreads a hundred feet is common in the
temperate zones of Europe. It is related to the native maples of the eastern
United States. I have tried some of these, which gave a similar dye. The leaves
are 3 to 5 inches long, with five pointed lobes, and the fruits have two spreading
wings for seed dispersal. When young, the leaves are reddish in color. I have
heard that country people in America used rotted maple wood with ferrous
sulfate to make a purple dye, but I have not been able to obtain this. All barks,
having tannin, tend to produce a brown color, but the Norway maple dye has an
interesting pinkish tinge. The bark should be taken from a felled tree, and may
be used either fresh or dried. It would also be worthwhile to experiment with
other maples.

Mordant: Chrome gives pinkish tan.

Y) PK STRIPPED BARK
Method: Enter the bark in cold water and heat slowly. Simmer for about 1%
hours. Strain off the bark and cool the liquor. Enter the clean, wetted wool and
AFTERBATH return bath to the simmer. Simmer for about | hour. The color will be improved
14 TSP COPPER SULFATE PER GAL OF WATER by steeping the wool in a warm afterbath of copper sulfate for about 20 minutes.
Rinse twice and dry.

LOMBARDY POPLAR
Populus nigra italica

This very narrow tall poplar tree is planted in avenues especially in Italy, and
its heart-shaped leaves quiver in the wind. A native of Central Asia, the tree was
brought from Italy to England by an ambassador in the mid-eighteenth century
and has spread widely. I always used the leaves green for dyeing until I found,
quite by accident, that dried leaves also work, when the tree in my garden was
cut down by a workman, and only withered branches were left. The dried leaves
give an unusual color. If you use dried leaves, be sure to remove all the twigs, as
the tannin in them will dull the color.

Mordant: Alum gives soft yellow and chrome a golden yellow if green leaves are
used; dried leaves give a duller khaki yellow.

Method: If possible, steep the leaves overnight in the water to be used for
1 LB (.5KG) or | PK GREEN LEAVES OR dyeing. Slowly heat the bath and simmer for | hour. Strain off the leaves and
HALF THIS AMOUNT OF DRIED LEAVES cool the liquor. Enter the clean, wetted wool and return bath to the simmer.
Simmer for | to 2 hours. Rinse the wool twice and dry.

54
PYRACANTHA OR FIRETHORN
Pyracantha angustifolia

This shrub (which used to be classed with cotoneasters) originated in China

but is now very common in gardens and parks. The rigid purplish brown
branches bear fierce thorns, and the lanceolate leaves with minutely serrated
edges are dark green above and gray-felted below. The clusters of white flowers
that the tree bears in June develop into orange or red berries that make it very
decorative. The tree must be pruned back because of its thorns, so I use the
clippings for dye. The bark can be easily stripped from the stems if one wears
gloves. P. coccinea is a hardier species, more popular in the U.S., but I have not
tried it.

Mordant: Alum gives yellow, chrome gives pinkish brown. 1 et (PACKED) BARK

Method: If possible, steep the bark overnight in the water to be used for dyeing. AFTERBATH
Slowly heat the bath and simmer for | to 2 hours. Strain off the bark and cool | TSP CHROME
the liquor. Enter the clean, wetted wool and return bath to the simmer for up to OR
2 hours. To warm the color, enter the wool in a chrome afterbath; to brighten it, SCANT | TSP FERROUS SULFATE
use a tin afterbath, and to dull it to a gray-green, use iron. In all cases the OR
afterbath should be simmering when the wool is entered. Simmer the wool for 10 SCANT | TSP STANNOUS CHLORIDE PER GAL
minutes, not longer, to avoid the side effects of these chemicals. Rinse the wool OF WATER
twice and dry.

SLOE OR BLACKTHORN
Prunus spinosa

This spiny, black-twigged form of plum, native to Eurasia, is now found all
over Europe, as an escape in North America, and in parts of Asia. A frail
powdering of delicate small white flowers often clothes the bushes before the
leaves appear and makes splashes of white in the prickly hedges. The leaves are
lanceolate and toothed. In autumn the small hard blue-black fruits appear;
although rounder, they resemble tiny plums, with the characteristic groove. Sloe
gin is a traditional country restorative and is still made by enthusists, among
whom I number myself. The bark also gives a dye, a red-brown color. Sloe dyes
silk even better than wool.

Mordant: None necessary for a rose-pink, but alum improves the fastness ofthe
color.

Method: The simultaneous method ofdyeing is preferable here. Put the sloes in
a mesh bag and enter in the bath together with the clean, wetted wool. Slowly Y2 LB (250G) or aBouT | QT BERRIES,
bring bath to the simmer and simmer berries and wool for about 40 minutes. FRESHLY PICKED AND WELL BRUISED. IT IS
Lift the bag out of the bath frequently and work the wool to keep the dyeing NOT ABSOLUTELY NECESSARY TO REMOVE
even. Rinse the wool twice and dry. If the wool is washed in soapy water before THE STONES.
rinsing, the color will turn grayish blue because soap is alkaline.

55
7

Facing page: A student's first weaving, done

ona rough frame loom. The fiber was dyed
with birch and cherry, and the barks of birch
and cherry have been incorporated in the
weaving.

8
Left: American Indian dye-plants and a
weaving made with fibers dyed by these plants.
(Photograph courtesy of Jacqueline Enthoven)

9.10
Below and below left: Two weavings by
students of the author. The fibers of the piece
at left were dyed with barks, the other piece
was dyed with onion skins and weld.
 POKEWEED OR POKEBERRY
Phytolacca americana

Also called scoke, pigeon berry, pokan, coakum, inkberry, redweed, bear’s
grape, garget, and other names, this 3- to 10-foot-tall glabrous plant springs
from a large, poisonous root, which is perennial. The leaves are 5 to 12 inches
long. The white flowers grow in terminal racemes, each floret composed of 4 to 5
narrow petals. These develop into dark purple ten-ribbed berries, which are a
favorite food of birds but poisonous to humans. Pokeweed grows from Ontario
in Canada east to Maine and south to Arkansas, Florida, and Mexico. It has
been naturalized in many parts of Europe. The plant is a troublesome weed, so
dyers will be thanked for removing its berries before it seeds. However, when the
first shoots are very young they can be eaten like asparagus and are delicious.
According to Bryant (Navajo Indian Dyes), the Navajo Indians used the root
bark of poke weed along with that of plum for purple-brown, and IJ am told that
the reddish-tinged leaves and the stems will make a dye, but I have used only the
berries, which give interesting but not very fast colors.

Mordant. Alum gives reds to soft tan.

Method: Since simmering the berries too long will result in a brown rather than
a pink to rose color, I steep them overnight and then use the simultaneous
method. Put the berries in a mesh bag and enter in the bath together with the
clean, wetted wool. Bring bath to the simmer and simmer wool and berries for 4 ~
hour or longer. Lift the bag out of the bath frequently and work the wool to keep
the dyeing even. Leave the wool to cool in the bath for several hours. Fine pinks
from flesh to rose are obtained from a shorter simmering. Rinse the wool twice
and dry. '
%-1% tps (360c-.75 kG) or % QT VERY At the Penland School of Handicrafts the berries are simmered in a strong
RIPE BERRIES, CRUSHED vinegar-water mixture instead of using water alone. This should deepen the pink
color. If the wool is washed in soapy water before rinsing, it turns grayish blue.

58
BLACK HUCKLEBERRY
Gaylussacia baccata

This well-known shrub grows only | to 3 feet high but spreads horizontally
with broad lanceolate blunt leaves about an inch long. The white or pink to
reddish flowers only a quarter of an inch across in a bell-like corolla, grow in
loose pointed clusters. The plant prefers sandy or rocky acid soil but is also found
in swampy moors. It grows from Newfoundland to Florida, and its familiar
black berry is well known in American and Canadian kitchens. I have used dried
and even canned huckleberries as well as fresh berries. The colors are beautiful
but not very fast. I use huckleberry for embroidery threads, where the washing
qualities are not important.

Mordant: Alum or chrome for shades of purple.

Method: Steep dry berries overnight in the water to be used for dyeing; crush
fresh berries lightly. (You can use half the quantities if you wish.) The
simultaneous method of dyeing is used. Put the berries in a mesh bag and enter
in the bath, along with any juices, together with the clean, wetted wool. Slowly 2 cas (1kG) or | QT BERRIES, FRESH OR
bring the bath to the simmer and simmer wool and berries for 2 to | hour. Lift CANNED; HALF THIS AMOUNT OF DRIED
the bag out of the bath frequently and work the wool to keep the dyeing even.
Allow the wool to cool in the bath. Rinse twice and dry.

BIG-BUD HICKORY
Carya tomentosa cs
\y A 6 Syl
[22 & i SS

This well-known eastern North American tree, also called mocker nut, has a iS( {iB/X
puckered bark and seven to nine pinnate-toothed leaves, which are fragrant Way
We N we
when crushed. The light brown pear- or egg-shaped nut has a thick stalk and a
Ler Neg ae al i
sweet kernel. When no fruits are to be seen, the tree can be distinguished by its
ridged bark and hairy twigs. Like other members of the species, it has long, yb) Glia
drooping male catkins. aN
Hickory bark has long been known as a dye. In the eighteenth century a
patent was taken out for it, but this was. not very productive, since brighter
Wey
TERS
ig
yellows were available. The color fastness is good. Hickory twigs and leaves give
a tan color with cream of tartar and Glauber’s salts. Shellbark hickory also
ee) PipKES <>

gives a dye from the green hulls.

Mordant: Alum gives yellow.

Method: Put the bark in cold water and heat slowly. Simmer for 3 hours. Strain 4 9, (120G) oR A BIG HANDFUL OF BARK,
off the bark and cool the liquor. Enter the clean, wetted wool and return bath causnep or POUNDED WITH A HAMMER.
to the simmer. Simmer for | to 3 hours. Rinse the wool twice and dry.

59
 SUMAC OR SUMACH
Rhus species

This family is native to temperate and subtropical regions of both Americas,

of Asia, and of Europe. The Arabs, in their conquest of Sicily, brought the “dyers
Ww
RAN
sumac,” R, coriaria, to Europe. Rhind speaks of this as giving a non-mordant
yellow-green dye and mentions also that the seeds were used as an appetizer
Ne
i
Wwe
SZ
‘
before meals. The leaves are also used for tanning leather. I have usually dyed a
drab tan from the bright red berries of staghorn sumac (R. typhina), but in
Pennsylvania in October, when glowing with red all through, they yielded a
warm red. I have read that the Navajos make a warm orange from the
fermented berries of R. trilobata. Traditionally, several ancient writers tell us,
the shoots of sumac trees were cut down each year, and used for yellow dye.
They give a stronger dye if dried and cut up. I have obtained a yellow from
young leaves.
Sumac also dyes cotton, and a recipe is given on page 92. Care should be
taken that one does not experiment with any of the poisonous sumacs. R.
radicans (poison ivy) and R. vernix (swamp sumac, found only in boggy
ground) are the two main culprits. Foliage of both colors beautifully in autumn,
and both have white berries when ripe. There are several other American and
Asian species which are also poisonous to touch.

Mordant: Alum gives brown, chrome gives warm tan.

Method: Put the berries in cold water and steep overnight in the water to be used
for dyeing. Heat slowly and simmer for 2 hours or more. Strain off the berries
2 LBs (1 KG) oR % PK VERY RIPE BERRIES, and cool the liquor. Enter the clean, wetted wool and return bath to the simmer.
BRUISED. Test the color after 20 minutes and remove the wool from the bath if it is a good
tan as further simmering will dull the color. Rinse the wool twice and dry.

60
Recipes For Winter
HEATHER
Erica species, especially ling (E. ca/luna vulgaris) and some E. carnea

Heaths and heathers, low plants of heaths and moors, are very common over
Europe, especially Scandinavia, and in Asia Minor. They are not wild or native
in North America, but may be found in gardens. All the heathers yield a yellow
dye, but that from ling is probably the best and has been used in Scotland and
Ireland for centuries. Heather grows only in acid soil especially on peat, which
is still used for fuel in these countries and in Scandinavia. Its pinkish (and
occasionally white or red) flowers are tiny bells that create miles of distinctive
purply-pink landscape when it blooms in late summer. Heather is perhaps best
used when it is fresh and green, but it can be cut while it is green and dried for
winter use.

Mordant: Alum gives yellow.

Method: Put the tips in cold water and heat slowly. Simmer for 2 to | hour
(some dyers say 3 to 4 hours). Strain off the tips and cool the liquor. Enter the
clean, wetted wool and return bath to the simmer. Simmer for about | hour,
according to the depth of color desired. (Violetta Thurston says the addition of Y2 LB (250G) or 2-4 QTS FRESH OR DRIED
oak galls towards the end of dyeing will give a moss green.) Rinse the wool twice TIPS
and dry.

ALDER
Black Alder — Alnus glutinosa
Mountain Alder — A. tenuifolia

The alders are deciduous trees related to the birch family, but with woody
cones, that grow in almost every part of Europe and much of North America but
prefer the damper, temperate regions. The male catkins are swinging tails of
yellow pollen; the female catkins are dark brown and remain dry on the tree
after their fertilized scales have been released. The Navajo Indians use the male
mountain alder, which has falling catkins of fine bracts, for dye. The leaves of
the alder will produce a yellow dye, but since there are so many yellows, the bark
is a more interesting dye material. It can be used fresh or dried.

Mordant: Alum gives yellowish brown. Add iron and copper sulfate to the
dyebath for black.
Ys 1B (250c) or | PK FRESH OR DRIED
Method: Steep the bark overnight in the water to be used for dyeing; if the bark BARK, PREFERABLY GATHERED IN May
is dried, steep it for a few days. Heat slowly and simmer for 2 hours. Strain off
the bark and cool the liquor. Enter the clean, wetted wool and return bath to the 1 TSP FERROUS SULFATE
simmer for | hour for a middle brown, 2 or more hours for a darker brown. To AND
obtain warm black, add the iron and copper sulfate, simmer for 1% hours more, Y) TSP COPPER SULFATE (FOR BLACK)
and leave to cool in the bath. Rinse the wool twice and dry.

61
 CHERRY
Prunus species, especially European bird cherry (P. padus)

All the cherries I have tried yield a dye more or less interesting, but the bird
cherry gives a warm pinkish color that becomes almost chocolate with long
boiling as the brown of the tannin is extracted. This species grows in Europe
and Asia. The leaves are shining green above, with a broadly tapering base.
They are finely toothed and the leaf stalk has glands. The small white flowers
hang from leafy stalks in drooping racemes. The fruit is small, round, and
black. There are numerous native American cherries, all worth trying. Sloe (see
page 55 ) and plum are related dye plants. The recipe for plum is the same as
for cherry.

Y) PK BARK Mordant: Alum gives yellow to chocolate brown.

AFTERBATH Method: Steep the bark overnight in the water to be used for dyeing. Heat slow-
SCANT 2 TSP CHROME ly and simmer for about 2 hours. Strain off the bark and cool the liquor. Enter
AND the clean, wetted wool and return bath to the simmer. Simmer for 4 to 3 hours.
2 TBSP VINEGAR PER GAL OF WATER Immediately enter the wool in a simmering afterbath of chrome and vinegar.
Simmer, covered, for 10 minutes. Rinse twice and dry.

MOUNTAIN LAUREL OR CALICO BUSH

Kalmia latifolia

This very common evergreen shrub of temperate America is grown in gardens

in Britain and Europe. Few native American shrubs are more decorative. It is a
rhododendron-like bush with large, oval, deep green glossy leaves and showy
pale pink clusters of umbrella-like flowers. It likes acid soil and grows in both
sun and shade. The leaves are used fresh, though they will also yield dye when
dried. As the plant is evergreen, there are always green leaves to use, but the
color obtained varies according to the season.

Mordant: Chrome gives soft to deep yellow, iron gives gray, and chrome with
iron added to the dyebath gives gray-browns.

1 LB (.5kKG) or 1-2 PKS LEAVES Method: Put the leaves in cold water and heat slowly. Simmer for | hour. Strain
off the leaves and cool the liquor. Enter the clean, wetted wool and return bath
Y) TSP FERROUS SULFATE (FOR GRAY- to the simmer. Simmer for 1 hour. For gray or gray-brown (if chrome-
BROWN) mordanted wool has been used), add the iron for about the last 15 minutes of
dyeing. Rinse the wool twice and dry.

SNOWBERRY OR WAXBERRY
Symphoricarpos albus

This 3- or 4-foot-high deciduous shrub is native to North America as far south

as Mexico and as far north as Alaska. In Britain it is a common garden shrub

62
and there are many wild escapes. The slender waving branches have opposite
pairs of round-oval leaves. In July and August the reddish brown stems
terminate in small clusters of tiny pink bell-like flowers, which produce the
distinctive white berries that hang on through winter. This is one of the dyestuffs
that can be gathered even with snow on the ground. The 6-foot-high variety
laevigatus is recommended for gardens because the fruit clusters are larger, but I
have not tried it for dyeing.

Mordant: Alum gives many shades ofyellow from brilliant acid yellow through
lime yellow to primrose yellow.

Method: Put the berries in cold water and heat slowly. Simmer for | hour. For
the brilliant shades, leave the berries in the liquor and cool. Enter the clean,
wetted wool and return bath to the simmer for 2 to | hour. Then leave the wool
to steep in the bath for | to 3 days, stirring occasionally. If on the other hand
you want the softer yellows, strain off the berries before cooling and entering the
wool. Return bath to the simmer and simmer for 2 to | hour. For a khaki
yellow, steep the berries for 24 hours before dyeing, simmer them for | hour, 2 LBs (1 KG) OR MORE FULLY WHITE
strain, cool, and simmer the wool for | hour. Rinse the wool twice and dry. BERRIES, LIGHTLY CRUSHED
There are probably many variations of this dye still to be explored.

BARBERRY
Berberis vulgaris

This prickly shrub with arching branches is native to Europe and eastern Asia
and is naturalized in the eastern part of North America. It was apparently one
of the first fruits sent over the New World in the early colonial days, for
medicinal use as well as for eating. It used to grow wild in England, but the
belief (called by Rhind a “vulgar prejudice’) that it affected the growth of corn
caused it to be banished from the hedgerows. Thus it is now more familiar to the
British as a decorative garden shrub, grown for its flaming autumn foliage and
flattish red berries, which used to be made into jelly and comfits with an acid
flavor. Barberry has long been used as a yellow dye among European peasants. WY of
y
Norwegian sources specially mention the use of the tips, and the whole plant a @ays
is used in Greece, but I prefer the bark and roots. When the bush needs pruning I
use the trimmings, which give rather less color. Any part can be dried for future a
(}) AY
use.
Barberry is a good dye for silk.

Mordant: None necessary. Alum gives light bright yellow, tin gives stronger
yellows.

Method: Put the bark in cold water and heat slowly. Simmer for | to 2 hours.
Strain off the bark and cool the liquor. Enter the clean, wetted wool and return
bath to the simmer. Simmer for 1 hour. A stronger color can be obtained by Y2 Lp (250G) or % QT BARK FROM STEMS
leaving the wool in the bath overnight and simmering it again for /2 hour the OR ROOTS
next day. Rinse the wool twice and dry.

63
 Recipes For Plants Used In Several Parts
SILVER BIRCH
Betula pendula or B. populifolia

The distinctive white- or pinkish-barked slender silver birch is common in

North America, Europe, and Asia and grows well at nigh altitudes and in snowy
latitudes. It is also cultivated as a garden specimen. The delicate branches bear
heart-shaped leaves on a stalk, and slender, waving catkins. The bark peels offin
paperlike strips and that of the larger-trunked B. papyfera was used for covering
tepees and canoes by North American Indians. For dyeing, however, the living
inner bark is better than the dead outer bark. The leaves can also be used fresh or
dried for use in winter.

RECIPE FOR LEAVES

Mordant: Alum gives yellow.

Y LB (250c) or asout 2 PK FRESH
LEAVES. INCREASE THE AMOUNT IF DRIED Method: Put the leaves in cold water and heat slowly. Simmer for | hour. Strain
LEAVES ARE USED. off the leaves and cool the eee Enter the clean, wetted wool and return bath
to the simmer. Simmer for % to 1 hour. Rinse the wool twice and dry.

RECIPE FOR BARK

Mordant: Alum gives dull yellow to dull gold, iron gives purplish.

Method: Steep the bark overnight in the water to be used for dyeing. Heat
slowly and simmer for I to 2 hours. Strain off the bark and cool the liquor.
% 1B (250G) or 2-4 QTs BARK, CHOPPED Enter the clean, wetted wool and return bath to the simmer. Simmer for % to 1'4
hours. Rinse the wool twice and dry.

64
ELDER
Sambucus nigra and S. canadensis

The European elder is a coarse pithy small tree common in the temperate
zones of Europe. The older trees have deeply furrowed bark. The clusters of
creamy white flowers (used for elder-flower wine) have a heavy scent. The leaves
grow in groups of three to seven and turn yellow to purple in autumn. Besides
the bark and leaves, the shining purple-black berries are also used and make a
dye of great variety though not of great fastness. The elder seeds itself freely and
is very fast growing, so it is worth while for a dyer to grow it for use in three or
four years’ time. Sambucus canadensis is a similar native American elder with
edible purple-black berries, but it has a shrubby growth habit and delights in
damp rich soil. The wide range of colors from elder is particularly pleasant and
could be used in itself for an embroidery or weaving. To obtain a very dark gray,
you can top-dye elder bark with walnut, as described in Chapter 6.

RECIPE FOR LEAVES

Mordant: Alum gives light yellow, chrome gives deep yellow.

Method: Young leaves give a purer color than older ones. Put the leaves in cold
water and heat slowly. Simmer for % to | hour. Strain off the leaves and cool the 1 LB (.5KG) oR 2 GALS LEAVES, BRUISED
liquor. Enter the clean, wetted wool and return to the simmer. Simmer for 15 to OR CHOPPED UP
30 minutes. Rinse the wool twice and dry.

RECIPE FOR BERRIES

Mordant: Alum gives violet, which can be modified by adding salt to the
dyebath, or by a vinegar dip.
2 1B (1kG) OR A DOZEN CLUSTERS OF
Method: Put the berries in cold water and heat slowly. Simmer for 2 to | hour. BERRIES, BRUISED
Strain off the berries and cool the liquor. Enter the clean, wetted wool and
return bath to the simmer. Simmer for % hour or longer according to the depth A HANDFUL OF SALT
of color desired. Leave the wool to steep in the bath overnight. The beautiful, OR
violet that results can be made more blue by adding a handful of salt to the bath VINEGAR SOLUTION OF | PART VINEGAR TO
while the wool is steeping overnight. For a more reddish shade, dip it in the 2 PARTS WATER (OPTIONAL)
vinegar solution for a few minutes instead. Rinse the wool twice and dry.

RECIPE FOR BARK

Mordant: Iron gives gray.

Method: Put the bark in cold water and heat slowly. Simmer for 2 hours. Strain
off the bark and cool the liquor. Enter the clean, wetted wool and return bath to 2 LBs (1kG) or 2 PK BARK
the simmer. Simmer for | to 2 hours. Rinse the wool twice and dry.

65
 BLACKBERRY
Rubus species

o
x q
This is common wayside bush known in Scotland as bramble; some American
forms are known as dewberry. It has prickly, bending stems and prickly 3- to 5-
foliate leaves with white or pinkish flowers and dark fruits, most of which are
edible. Gerard’s Herbal says ‘“‘They heale eies that hang out...and a decoction
ap ait fastneth the teeth.” There are many cultivated forms of blackberry —

i i
|
\ Ni4
%,Me,[" ial # RS
f SON
loganberry, himalayaberry, etc. In its wild form it grows in waste places and
YUE {)
; WS
NS
woodlands and quickly takes over ditches and neglected ground. On the
northwest coast of the United States I found a low creeping type, which has a
particularly sweet berry and also makes a good dye, as does the American black
SA
Vy
by
LAM ip of
raspberry. Blackberry will also dye silk, which should be simmered at a lower
temperature.
I use blackberry shoots to dye many hanks of wool a pale gray, which are then
top-dyed to get subtle colors.

RECIPE FOR YOUNG SHOOTS

Mordant: Alum gives gray, iron added to the dyebath gives near-black and gray-
Y2 1B (250c) or | PK TIPS OF YOUNG purple.
SHOOTS—ROUGHLY THE TOP 5 INCHES (THEY
ARE NOT HURT BY TRIMMING) Method: Put the tips in cold water and heat slowly. Simmer for % hour. Strain
off the tips and cool the liquor. Enter the clean, wetted wool and return bath to
A PINCH OF FERROUS SULFATE (FOR NEAR- the simmer. Simmer for % hour and test for color. A light gray-purple is
BLACK) obtained first, then a darker gray. For an even darker gray, add iron for the last
10 to 15 minutes of dyeing. Rinse the wool twice and dry.

RECIPE FOR BERRIES

Mordant: Alum gives shades ofrose. The color is not very fast.

2 cas (1KG) OR ABOUT 2 QTS BERRIES, Method: The simultaneous method of dyeing is preferable for berries. Put them
CRUSHED in a mesh bag and enter in the bath together with the clean, wetted wool. Slowly
bring bath to the simmer and simmer for % to | hour. To turn the rose color
10-30% AMMONIA SOLUTION (FOR BLUE) which results into blue, immediately dip the wool briefly in the ammonia
solution. Rinse thoroughly and dry.

66
PRIVET
Ligustrum vulgare é‘
p A oR 6s
Ss2) Co 9 ea “@ “ HB

This shrub, now somewhat naturalized in the eastern United States, is very Yo ff wd a- | & /®
2) © + Dio

OYZOZJo oO
oO
2” PR
OH Rw
IE | ®) Ve‘fy
commonly used for hedges in European and American gardens. As it needs Q? O
a\p
A VW
: QD J 6 <=
gO S080 eeha
e - @

frequent clipping, there is no problem in obtaining leaves. The dark green G

f
DYSON &® FG : yey
fr
VZo
lanceolate leaves are small and the white flowers not conspicuous. The dark, a
Co
\ “oL0 ENGR
dull, almost black berries hang on until late autumn, I grow the golden QO (
Q
NS
ye ;
oNe
evergreen type in my garden and find that its leaves make an especially bright,
rich yellow. Fresh leaves give a much better color then those even a few hours
old. If you use clippings, discard the twigs — their tannin content will dull the
color. This is a strong, fast dye.

RECIPE FOR LEAVES

Mordant: Alum gives dull to bright yellow, copper sulfate gives greens, and iron
added to the dyebath gives dark green.

Method: Put the leaves in cold water and heat slowly. Simmer for % to | hour. | PK FRESH LEAVES SEPARATED FROM THE
Strain off the leaves and cool the liquor. Enter the clean, wetted wool and return TWIGS
bath to the simmer. The color should develop in about 20 minutes, but the wool
can be simmered much longer to obtain a range ofshades before the color begins Y>-1 TSP FERROUS SULFATE (FOR DARK
to dull. Test the color frequently. For dark green, add iron for the last 15 GREEN)
minutes of dyeing. Rinse the wool twice and dry.

RECIPE FOR BERRIES

Mordant: Alum, chrome, tin and iron give many shades from pale pink to blue-
purple.

Method: Put the berries and all the juice from them in cold water and heat ! QT BERRIES OR MORE FOR DEEPER SHADES,

slowly. Simmer for about % hour. Strain off the berries and cool the liquor. BRUISED
Enter the clean, wetted wool and return bath to the simmer again. The color
should develop in about 20 minutes. Many shades can be obtained by changing A PINCH OF FERROUS SULFATE (FOR A
the proportion of berries used in relation to the amount of wool. For duller DULLER COLOR)
color, add iron for the last 15 minutes of dyeing. Rinse the wool twice and dry.

67
 LADY’S BEDSTRAW
Galium boreale or G. verum

The tiny four-petalled yellow flowers of lady’s bedstraw, also called our lady’s
bedstraw and yellow bedstraw, make feathery tops to the soft green square
stems with whorls of tiny leaves. The name recalls its use as a pleasant filling for
mattresses. A common wayside flower of Europe and North America, it has a
warm summer scent. It flowers in high summer, and its roots provide one of the
few native British sources for red dye. It was much used in the Hebrides for the
red of tartans. You can get better yellow dyes than the tops give, but if you pull
up the plant to use the roots, it is satisfying to use the tops too.

RECIPE FOR TOPS

Mordant: Alum gives yellow.

Method: The simultaneous method is preferable here. Put the tops in a mesh bag
l QT OR MORE FRESHLY CUT TOPS IN and steep them overnight in the water to be used for dyeing. Enter the clean,
FLOWER, FINELY CHOPPED wetted wool. Slowly bring bath to the simmer and simmer for | to 1% hours.
Rinse twice and dry.

RECIPE FOR ROOTS

Mordant: Chrome gives red, alum and chrome gives light orange-red, chrome
with iron added to the dyebath gives purplish red.

Method: Dig up the plants when in flower and spread them to dry for a few days.
Then chop off the roots and wash them thoroughly, scrubbing them with a small
brush. Chop into small pieces, put them into cold water, and heat slowly.
4-6 oz (120-180c) roots Simmer for | to 2 hours. Strain off the roots and cool the liquor. Enter the clean,
wetted wool and return bath to the simmer. Simmer for | to 2 hours. According
Y2 TSP FERROUS SULFATE (FOR PURPLISH to the color desired, add iron to the bath for the last 15 minutes of dyeing. The
RED) addition of 1% tablespoons of vinegar for the last 15 minutes strengthens the
color. Winifred Shand says that in the Hebrides the wool was washed in salty
12 TBSP VINEGAR (OPTIONAL) water, which I have not tried, but salt usually tends to fix dyes. Rinse the wool
twice and dry.

68
MAHONIA OR OREGON GRAPE
Mahonia aquifolium

This evergreen shrub has decorative yellow flowers and bloomy dark blue
berries. It grows to 3 feet or more. The plant is native to western North
America, but has long been common in Britain and is now naturalized. It is very
tolerant of shade, but cannot take strong wind. The long-lasting sprays are used
by florists, while the acid fruits are made into Oregon-grape jelly. A dwarf form,
M. repens, is low and spreading and often used as ground cover in parks.

RECIPE FOR BERRIES

Mordant: None necessary, but the color is faster with a mordant. Alum gives
purplish blue, which can be darkened. If no mordant is used, a tin afterbath is
recommended.
1 cB (.SkG) or | QT OR MORE FULLY RIPE
Method: Put the berries in cold water and heat slowly. Simmer for % hour. BERRIES, CRUSHED
Strain off the berries and cool the liquor. Enter the clean, wetted wool and
return bath to the simmer. Simmer for | hour or longer, according to the depth AFTERBATH
of color desired. If the wool was not previously mordanted, enter it in a SCANT | TSP STANNOUS CHLORIDE PER GAL
simmering afterbath of tin and simmer for 2 hour. Wash in soapy water. Rinse OF WATER
twice and dry.

RECIPE FOR ROOTS

Mordant: Alum gives buff to brown, chrome gives tan.

8-12 oz (250-360c) or 2 PK ROOTS,
Method: Steep the roots overnight in the water to be used for dyeing. Heat CHOPPED
slowly and simmer for 2 to 3 hours. Strain off the roots and cool the liquor. AFTERBATH
Enter the clean, wetted wool and return bath to the simmer. Simmer for 4 hour Ys TSP POTASSIUM DICHROMATE
or longer, according to the depth of color desired. To make the color obtained AND
with alum-mordanted wool warmer, enter the wool in a simmering afterbath of 2 TBSP VINEGAR PER GAL OF WATER
chrome and vinegar. Simmer, covered, for 10 minutes. Rinse twice and dry.

RECIPE FOR WHOLE PLANT (except berries)

Mordant: Alum gives a khaki-yellow. About 12 times the usual amount of alum
is needed. The additional alum can be added to the dyebath.

Method: Put the chopped pieces in cold water and heat slowly. Simmer for 2 to
2% hours. Strain off the plant material and cool the liquor. Stir in the alum. 1 cB (.5kG) or | PK LEAVES, STEMS, AND
Enter the clean, wetted wool and return bath to the simmer. Simmer for 2 to | ROOTS, CHOPPED AND PACKED FIRMLY
hour. Rinse very thoroughly (because of the extra alum) and dry.
The Navajo Indians dyed wool with mahonia byjust steeping it overnight, but 1'’4 Tsp ALUM
I prefer to simmer it in the usual way.

69
 RUDBECKIA OR CONEFLOWER
Rudbeckia trilobia

This biennial, common over most of the eastern and central United States,
where it is well known as the brown-eyed susan, is also grown there and in Britain
as a garden flower. It is an undemanding plant, with leaves that change from
lobed to nearly entire as they go up the stem. It grows from 2 to 5 feet high as a
coarse weed flowering from July to October. The rays, 2 to | inch long in the
wild type, larger in the cultivated, are yellow with an orange or purple-brown
base, and the disc is black-purple. It is named after two professors, father and
son, of the seventeenth-eighteenth centuries. There are numerous other
rudbeckias also available in the United States, some of them truly perennial.

RECIPE FOR FLOWER HEADS

Mordant: Alum gives green, chrome gives greenish gold if the whole flower head
is used, warm golden yellow if only the petals are used.

Method: The simultaneous method is preferable here. Put the flower heads or
petals in a mesh bag and enter in the bath together with the clean, wetted wool.
2 QTS FLOWER HEADS, WHOLE OR PETALS Slowly bring bath to the simmer and simmer for 4 to | hour. Lift the bag out of
ONLY the bath frequently and work the wool to keep the dyeing even. Rinse twice and
dry the wool.

RECIPE FOR WHOLE PLANT (except roots)

Mordant: Alum gives a pale primrose yellow.

Method: Steep the pieces overnight in the water to be used for dyeing. Heat
slowly and simmer for up to | hour. Strain off the plant material and cool the
Yy PK WHOLE PLANTS EXCEPT ROOTS, liquor. Enter the clean, wetted wool and return bath to the simmer. Simmer for
CHOPPED ROUGHLY % to | hour, according to the depth ofcolor desired. To brighten the color, adda
pinch of lime to the bath for the last 15 minutes of dyeing. Lift the wool out
A PINCH OF LIME (CALCIUM OXIDE) before stirring in the lime. Rinse the wool very thoroughly (because ofthe lime)
and dry.

70
BUCKTHORN
Rhamnus caroliniana, R. cathartica

R. cathartica is a common British garden shrub, and R. caroliniana is found

over considerable stretches of the United States. Both have small greenish
inconspicuous flowers and will grow treelike if not pruned. This family, one of
which (Persian berries) was a traditional commercial dye, has a vast amount of
dye in various parts. The twigs, the smooth grayish bark, and the berries —
yellow in the Near Eastern species and red turning black in cathartica and
caroliniana — all give a dye. I use the clippings of the plant after pruning. The
berries are gathered when not quite ripe for drying, but they can also be used \DSN
1A
fresh. If they are stored, they must not be put away even slightly damp.

RECIPE FOR BERRIES OF AR. caroliniana ee

ES
IS
Sau
.
hk
RUORS
XX
(f
Vero
CRS
|gS
pIPFPA
ASA
Mordant: Alum and cream of tartar gives lemon yellow, alum alone gives bright
NES
yellow, chrome gives warm brown, chrome and cream of tartar gives old gold,
tin gives orange, iron and cream of tartar added to the dyebath gives greenish Z
{SY
ER
~= 18
~
SISO
sg
>,AOLED‘=

yellow.

Method: The simultaneous method is preferable for berries. Put the berries in a 2-4 oz (60-120G) BERRIES, CRUSHED
mesh bag and enter in the bath together with the clean, wetted wool. Slowly
bring bath to the simmer and simmer for 20 to 40 minutes. Lift the bag out of Y) TSP FERROUS SULFATE
the bath frequently and work the wool to keep the dyeing even. To obtain a AND
greenish yellow, add the iron and cream of tartar for the last 15 minutes of V2 TSP CREAM OF TARTAR (FOR GREENISH
dyeing. Rinse the wool twice and dry. YELLOW)
The berries of R. cathartica give a blue-gray with an alum mordant.

RECIPE FOR TWIGS OR BARK OF R.. cathartica

Mordant: Alum gives brownish yellow, chrome gives brown-yellow, iron added
to the dyebath gives brown.
Ya-1 pT STRIPPED BARK, FRESH OR DRIED, OR
Method: Put the bark or twigs in cold water and heat slowly. Simmer for | hour. SMALL TWIGS, CHOPPED
Strain off the plant material and cool the liquor. Enter the clean, wetted wool
and return bath to the simmer. Simmer for 15 to 45 minutes. For brown, add Y. TSP FERROUS SULFATE (FOR BROWN)
iron for the last 15 minutes of dyeing. Rinse the wool twice and dry.

71
 4. Dyes of Historic Importance

The use of dyes for fabric reaches back into history. Dyed fabric from
thousands of years B.C. has been found in Egyptian tombs: indigo was grown
there, and tradition holds that mummy wrappings were dyed with saffron, still
occasionally used today, though most frequently in the kitchen. Madder was
known in Indochina in the early centuries A.D. and indigo was grown there as
well as in Persia.
The Romans used several dyes, though their most famous one, Tyrian purple,
which they got from the Phoenicians, was from the Murex, a shellfish, not from
a plant. A plum color rather than a true purple, it was worn in later centuries
only as a royal and ecclesiastical privilege — no wonder, since many thousands
of the Murex shellfish were required to make one ounce of dye.
We know little of how dyeing survived the Middle Ages, but from the evidence
of paintings and illuminated manuscripts, we know that colored cloth was worn
— mostly by the aristocrats — and Charlemagne passed a decree concerning the
cultivation of woad, cochineal (not a plant dye), and madder.
Some of the dyes used in Anglo-Saxon England can be identified as similar to
the embroidery threads of the Bayeux Tapestry: they include madder (which was
imported from France), woad, and indigo. Even before the Conquest, many
Norman dyers had settled in London, and a Guild of Dyers had been formed
there by the end of the twelfth century. We get a glimpse of the colors of the
fourteenth century from Chaucer’s descriptions of the Canterbury pilgrims. The
knight wore a coat and hood of green, the merchant was in motley (varicolored
fabric), the wife of Bath sported red stockings, and the miller wore a white coat
and a blue hood.
The development of heraldry and the great festivals of the Church encouraged

72
the use of color symbolism. Not only in clothes and horse trappings but in
banners, canopies, and flags, as we see them in the paintings of the early
Renaissance and later in the works of Canaletto. This gave scope to the
colorists.
Italy gained a great lead in the field of dyeing in the fourteenth century when a
Florentine merchant named Federico observed the preparation and use of certain
lichens for dyeing purples when he was traveling in Asia Minor. What he saw
was very likely archil, until recently made from lichens in the Scottish highlands.
When Federico produced the dye after experimenting in private and made his
discovery known, he was rewarded with honor and privilege and given the right
to use as his family name, the name Roccellia from the name of the lichen,
Roccella tinctorius. The process of using Roccella, remained for some time a
monopoly of Italian dyers (until one of their number brought the precious secret
to England). The first European book on dyeing was published in Venice in
1429, while England had to wait until 1662 for its first published book on dyeing.
The growing trade in silk, which took such sumptuous colors, and in damasks
from the East, also encouraged experimentation. Along with the spices, jewels,
and songs from the East that traveled through Constantinople by dangerous
caravan routes came the dye colors, with which the Europeans strove to match
the vision of richness that had been opened up.
The discovery of the New World similarly meant the discovery of new dyes.
Red brazilwood, which had formerly been imported from the East, was found in
such quantities that its name was given to a huge country. It is fascinating to
compare the English herbals of the mid-seventeenth century, such as Gerard,
Culpeper, and Parkinson, with the early nineteenth-century descriptions of
Rhind to see which plants originated in what parts of the world.
Some of the dyes whose history is inextricably woven into the development
of European trade and agriculture can still be grown in our gardens like woad
and madder, or found wild, like weld and buckthorn. Some, like indigo and
logwood, cannot be found unless cultivated in temperate climes. Yet they are of
BRAZILWOOD
such historical importance that they merit consideration and offer fascinating
insights into the lives of our ancestors. So this chapter gives a fuller account of There are several species of this family natives of South
America, and of the East and West Indies. It was probably,
these dyes, including historical accounts oftheir cultivation, and practical advice however, first imported into Europe from the Brazils, and
hence the name. Soon after its introduction, the Portuguese
on simple dye methods for today. Some ofthese dyes have been superseded, and government began to appreciate its value, and accordingly it
one experiment will probably salve the enthusiast’s curiosity. But when we take was made one of the objects of royal monopoly, being
imported into Europe on account of the crown. From this
a hank of faintly yellow wool from the dye-vat and watch it turn woad-blue in circumstance it is known in Brazil as pao de Rainha, or
Queen’s wood.
the air, we can appreciate some of the excitement of a drab-clothed populace. When first cut, the wood is a pale red, but becomes darker
by exposure to air. It is varigated with irregular and fan-
Since I have not been able to find brazilwood (Caesalpina echinata) imported tastical black spots, which has obtained for it among the
in Europe or growing where I have worked in North America, I have not tested French’ the name of bois de lettres.
The most permanent colours produced from this dye are
this interesting red dye. However, those who live where it is indigenous might those in which the natural purple red is changed by acids to an
orange or yellow colour. Brazil-wood is often used in dyeing
experiment with it. silk of a crimson hue,
Madder, still used in many parts of the world, has been from antiquity the Brazil-wood boiled in water communicates to it a fine red
colour, while the wood itself becomes a darker colour, and if
main plant source of red dye. But its color was equalled by two other historic the ebullition be continued long enough the residuum will be
black. Paper tinged red with this decoration is altered to a
dyes that come not from plants but from insects. The finest red of these was violet colour by the action of the alkalis, and to a yellow by
most of the acids.
kermes, used in Syria and Phoenicia. Plutarch mentioned that kermes retained
its color after 190 years, and we can see today, in museums, Coptic textiles of William Rhind

the fourth and fifth centuries A.D. with kermes red as fresh as if it had been dyed

73
 yesterday. Its deep red is seen in Persian and Turkish carpets, and it is still used
in the countryside of Greece. The dye was used extensively in the Mediterranean
and in Asia, as the kermes insects, the Kermes ilicis, live on the kermes oak and
holm oak, which grows abundantly along the Mediterranean and in the Levant.
The insects are killed with acetic acid, dried, and powdered. (The kermes insects
are not to be confused with a red parasite that grows on knot grass in the sandy
regions of east Germany and Poland, called “‘kermes berries.’’ Inside these
‘“‘berries’’ are blood-red worms, which are also treated with acetic acid — in the
form of vinegar — and dried and ground to make a rich carmine.*)

COCHINEAL

Cochineal, the other famous red dye of history, comes from an insect that
produces carminic acid, which with the appropriate mordants yields pink to
carmine on wool and silk. When the Spanish arrived in Mexico in 1518, they
found the Indians brushing the wingless female insects off cactus plants with fine
brushes (to avoid the spikes), on to trays. The insects were then dried in the sun
or over a stove and ground into a powder, and the same process is used today.
Most of the pinks and carmines of ancient American embroideries are from
cochineal. It is not so fast as kermes or madder, but it suffices for textiles not
exposed to continual bright light.
Kermes and cochineal can still be obtained from dyehouses, and the latterin
some places is a household food colorant. Cochineal is often used in combina-
tion with plant dyes, and for this reason a recipe is given here.
Cochineal also dyes silk very beautifully.

RECIPE FOR COCHINEAL

Y%-1 oz (15-30c) or 1%2-3 TBsP
COCHINEAL POWDER Mordant: Alum gives rose to pink, chrome gives warm pink to purplish red, tin
gives strong scarlet, iron added to the dyebath gives violet to gray-purple.
Y2 TSP COMMON SALT

Yy TSP FERROUS SULFATE (FOR VIOLET) Method: Warm the water with the salt added to hand-heat and stir in the
OR cochineal. Enter the clean, wetted wool and heat slowly. (It should take almost 1
SCANT 12 TSP STANNOUS CHLORIDE (FOR hour to reach the simmer.) Then simmer for | hour. Add iron for violet and stir.
SCARLET) Alternatively, for a brighter scarlet on alum-mordanted wool, leave the wool in
the bath to cool and add the tin at this point. Rinse the wool twice and dry.

*This information I had from Violetta Thurston.

74
MADDER
Rubia tinctorum

The name of the madder plant is linked with the color red in many European
languages, and the history of madder-growing twines in and out ofthe history of
Europe — though the plant was also found in all of Asia and is particularly
associated with Java. Pliny the Elder wrote of madder growing in the vicinity of
Rome in the first century A.D., and although there are no written records, it is
reasonable to suppose that its cultivation continued, for in the eighth century
Charlemagne ordered it to be grown on his estates, as mentioned earlier. During
the later Middle Ages it was planted on fallow fields because it needs three years
to come to maturity. But madder cultivation became a fine art in Holland in the
fifteenth century. The alluvial soil of the delta islands and the moist climate were
ideal, and the careful patience of the Dutch in continually tilling and manuring
the soil found a worthy subject in madder. We are told, “It appears to have been
a peculiarity of madder growing in Holland not to sow seeds; with the
painstaking care of the born gardener the Dutch madder grower trained each
young plant, observing certain times hallowed by the tradition of centuries. No
shoot was planted before May when the apple trees were in full bloom. The
parent plants from which the shoots were taken had to be two years old. The
period of growth was three years; after that the crop was taken up and an
interval of ten years was allowed to lapse before madder was again planted in the
soil.* MADDER
The importance of the traditional skill that fostered the cultivation of madder This plant is frequently mentioned by the Greek writers, who
employed its root as a medicine.
is underlined by the failure of the Swiss educator, Johann Pestalozzi (1746- The madder used for dyeing cotton in the East Indies is in
1827), who tried his hand at it on his orphanage farm at Neuhof. His some respects different from that of Europe. On the coast of
Coromandel it has the name of “chat”. It grows wild on the
painstaking efforts and all the work of the orphans whom he cared for and coast of Malabar; the cultivated kind is obtained from Vaour
and Tuccoun, but the most esteemed is the Persian chat,
taught to work for their living could not match that of his illiterate rural called also “‘dumas.”
It is certain that it contains at least two distinct colouring
neighbors. matters, a fawn and a red, and that the admixture of the
The dye resides in the root of the plant between the outer skin and the woody former with the latter very much injures its clearness and
beauty. In consequence ofthis, two kinds of red are obtained
heart. It has to be dried and ground to a powder and, whereas the moist climate from madder. The first-is simply called madder red, which
contains the-whole of the colouring matter. The other
of Europe was more conducive to its growth (so that it was sometimes trained up possesses far more lustre, and is much more valued: it is called
pea-sticks), the dry, clear air of the Orient made it possible to dry it out-of- Turkey red, because first obtained from the Levant. Its
superior brilliancy is imparted in consequence of the red
doors. Many forms of drying house were developed in Europe, and the final colouring matter being alone preserved; and while the tint
communicated excels in brightness, it has the additional and
stage of drying was sometimes carried out by popping the roots into the baker’s great advantage of extreme durability.

oven when the bread was taken out. An old Dutch print shows a horse walking The manner ofproducing this desirable effect was for a long
period of time a subject of much interest and inquiry, the
in a circle strapped to a long beam that rotates a pounder, so working a heap of process used in Turkey being enveloped in mystery. Many
different ingredients are used previously to applying the
madder in the center. The yellow powder that results from grinding the dried madder. Oil, sheep's dung, calf's blood, gall-nuts, soda, alum,
and subsequently a solution oftin are employed, and the yarn
root yields the greatest pigmentation if it is fermented, and for this purpose, in undergoes seventeen distinct operations before it is finally

Europe it was kept in sealed vessels; in the Caucasus it was fermented in open imbued with its rich colouring. Madder has the singular
property of imparting its colour to the animal fluids when
its. given along with food. In this way it tinges the milk, urine,
and even the bones, thus affording a proof that the digestive
: The American settlers had enough to do to scrape a living in their new country process does not in all cases destroy the natural properties of
the substances taken into the stomach.
for some time, and probably recipes that were known to the first colonists were
never handed on. Other crops were more profitable, so despite the efforts of William Rhind
Thomas Jefferson and Dolly Madison to persuade farmers to cultivate dyestuffs

*G. Schaefer in CIBA Review No. 39.

7S
 Pts
Ly a
I ie SOO
BE 66
(PO eageoanasganennrere?® ryae
o*9 OO"abi28
A crocheted poncho/skirt made of wool dyed lig pining
with plants grown in the author's garden
(weld, madder, tansy ragwort, blackberry,
elder, woad, and several barks) as well as
indigo.

12
Detail of poncho/skirt.
on a commercial scale, madder continued to be imported. In 1791 Coxe wrote,
“the colouring ingredients have generally been such as nature handed to the
thrifty housewife,”* that is, what grew wild around the homestead.
Madder was an important item of commerce for many centuries. A
hundredweight of madder cost thirty shillings in the fateful year 1868, when the
synthetic alizarin was produced. After this the price dropped rapidly;
nevertheless, Holland and other countries continued to grow madder in
considerable quantities until the Second World War, and it has continued to be a
favorite of home dyers because of the shimmering brilliance of its color.
Madder needs a mordant to fix it, and alum, which had been known to the
Greeks, was certainly used in Turkey in the fifteenth century and exported to
Italy. The Italians soon searched for alumite within their own borders, and Pope
Pius II opened the alum pits north of Rome in the mid-fifteenth century.
Production was considered a monopoly of the Holy See, and when an
Englishman brought workmen from these pits to Yorkshire to begin production
there, they were excommunicated for taking the secret of their craft abroad.
The color, however, was duller than the bright red we associate with madder
today. The brightest and most lasting dye derived from madder was Turkey red,
long made by a secret process in the East and especially valued there because it
dyed cotton. In this long and complicated process, the fibers were prepared by
boiling, tanning, and mordanting with alum and calcium before dyeing. Dung
and sumac and oak-galls, which contain tannin, were also used, Rhind tells us.
Being expensive, this dye was used for embroidery threads rather than
yardage. In Bali it is said that to produce a good red dye from madder takes six
years.
Turkey red dyeing came to Europe from the Near East; it was probably
carried to the Far East by the conquests of Islam. The Indonesians, who had
obtained a kind of red dye from safflower and the annatto tree (Bixa orellana)
adapted the process, using those plants whose bark yields alumina where
aluminum was not available. I have learned how to treat madder grown in my
own garden from old records.
If you dig madder up from your own plot or a friend’s the roots (which should
be two or preferably three years old) must be thoroughly scrubbed and then
dried. Although the dye resides mainly between the outer skin and woody center
of the plant, these are so hard to separate that I use the whole root.
You can make a drying rack by stretching fine wire mesh or muslin over a
rough wooden frame or an old picture frame; hang this above the kitchen stove
or in another warm place. Turn the roots over occasionally, and when they are
dry, cut them up roughly and finish off the drying in a warm oven. Then grind
these pieces with a mortar and pestle, or in a coffee grinder.
Since many dyers will use commercial madder, a more pure form that can be
obtained from a dye-house, rather than growing their own, I give quantities for
this as well as for madder roots in the following recipes.

*Quoted in Rita J. Adrosko, Natural Dyes in the United States, 1968.

77
 RECIPE FOR RED

Mordant: Alum gives Chinese lacquer red, chrome gives garnet red, tin gives
orange-red.

Method: Some dyers steep the madder overnight in the water to be used for
dyeing. If you are using powder, add it to the water and stir; if you use roots, put
them in a mesh bag and enter together with the clean, wetted wool. It is very
2 oz (60G) or 3-4 TBSP COMMERCIALLY important to heat the bath very slowly — it should take | to 2 hours to reach the
PRODUCED MADDER POWDER OR AT LEAST simmer. Do not allow the bath to get above simmering point, as the yellow color
3 TIMES THIS AMOUNT OF CHOPPED ROOTS is extracted at the higher temperatures. For garnet red, keep an even lower
temperature — below 140°F. (60°C.). Simmer the wool for 30 to 40 minutes
1 GAL HARD WATER after it reaches the simmer. Leave the wool in the bath to cool. Rinse the wool
once thoroughly, then wash in soapy water, rinse twice and dry.

“4-2 oz (7-15cG) or 6-10 TSP COMMERCIAL RECIPE FOR ORANGE

MADDER OR 3 TIMES THIS AMOUNT OF
CHOPPED ROOTS Mordant: Tin gives pure orange.

| TSP CREAM OF TARTAR (OPTIONAL)

Method: If you are using powder, add it to the water or liquor and stir well; if .
l GAL HARD WATER you are using roots, put them in a mesh bag. The cream of tartar may be added
OR at this point to brightén the color. Enter the clean, wetted wool. It is very
1 GAL LIQUOR FROM A YELLOW DYESTUFF
important to heat the bath very slowly — it should take | to 2 hours to reach the
SUCH AS ONION SKINS OR WELD
boiling point. Boil the wool for 40 minutes. Let the wool cool in the bath. Wash
in soapy water. Rinse twice and dry.

78
WOAD
Isatis finctoria

The knowledge of dyeing with woad undoubtedly survived through the Middle
Ages. Among the earliest records of this dye is mention of awoad market in the
district of Cologne in the thirteenth century, and after that time the craft was in
the hands of various guilds. The medieval guilds existed for the mutual aid and
protection of members and crafts, but the dyers in the Wool Guild of Florence,
among whom the woad dyers were the chief, were oppressed and given only
minor membership. As a result, they fought a long battle for better conditions
with, according to J.B. Hurry, ‘‘every weapon which in modern times has been
resorted to in conflicts between capital and labour.’’* Their fraternity, which
had started as the Guild of St. James, came under the protection of Saint
WOAD
Nicholas, probably because so much of the trade was carried by sea. Richard
This plant was at a very early period employed as a colouring
Hakluyt, the English geographer whose Principall Navigations, Voiages, and matter by the ancient Britons, It was anciently called glastum
from the Celtic word glas, blue, whence Glastonbury derived
Discoveries of the English Nation was published in 1589, wrote: its name. The ancient Britons, when first invaded by the
The marchaundy of Brabant and Zeeland Romans, were in the practice of staining their bodies of a blue
colour with some preparation ofthis substance; thence also is
Be madre [madder] and woade, that dyers take one hande supposed to be derived the name Briton from the celtic britho,
paint.
To dyen withe garleke and onyons, The two first gatherings render the best woad. The plants
are mowed down with a scythe, and as soon as collected are
And saltfyshe als for husbond and commons. washed in a stream of water, and dried in the sun. The
Hakluyt also speaks of Genoese merchants coming to England in great carracks desiccation must be rapidly performed. Immediately on being
dried from the effects of the washing, it is conveyed to a mill,
with black pepper “‘and of woade grete plante,...coton, roche-alum,” etc., and resembling the oil or tan mills, and is ground into a smooth
paste. A blackish crust is soon formed on the outside, which, if
taking in exchange English “‘wollene clothe of colours all.” it happen to crack, is carefully reunited. Should this be
Flemish weavers and dyers who had earlier established themselves in neglected little worms would be produced in the cracks, and
the woad lose part of its strength. After remaining thus
Lincolnshire and East Anglia found woad a lucrative crop in the sixteenth covered a fortnight, the heaps are opened, and the crust
rubbed and mixed with the inside. This matter is then formed
century, when clothing was ostentatious and extravagant, and blue was a into solid balls.
These balls require a farther preparation before they can be
fashionable color. Three pieces of cloth required a barrel of woad, and a converted to the purpose of dyeing. They are first beated with
burgher’s wife might pay as much for one dress as would buy a small house. wooden mallets on a brick or stone floor, until they are
reduced to coarse powder. This is heaped up into the middle of
The preparation of the dye demanded fermentation, and it is said that Queen the apartment to the height of about four feet, space being left
to allow a sufficient passage round the sides; it is then
Elizabeth would not travel near the woad towns because of the stench; a decree moistened with water, which speedily induces fermentation,
forbade processing woad within five miles of the royal estates! and thick fetid fumes are emitted. The heap is daily moistened
and stirred about with shovels, for the space of twelve days,
In the seventeenth century, the Dutch East India Company imported after which period it is moved less frequently, and without
being watered. At length it is made into a heap for the dyer.
quantities of indigo into Europe, and in spite of many attempts to exclude it, by The proper mode of conducting the fermentation, and the
exact time at which it ought to be stopped, still remain so
the middle of the century indigo had superseded woad as the chief blue dye in uncertain, that those who make it their business to prepare
England. Woad continued to be grown, however, since it was used to aid woad have no decided facts or indications to govern their
management in this respect; and the goodness of any par-
fermentation in the indigo vats, and this humble plant still contributes color to ticular quantity can never be ascertained otherwise than by
actual use.
English life as an ingredient in the blue uniforms of the London police.
William Rhind
Woad also provided the beautiful blue pigment of European painting from the
thirteenth century on, and one of the most popular subjects of medieval and
Early Renaissance art — the Virgin Mary — was traditionally clad in a robe One ofthe first concrete facts of English history which a child
learns at school is that the Ancient Britons dyed themselves
that glowed pale or dark blue with the juice of this plant. (The scum that rose to blue with a plant called Woad.

the top of the dye vat was mixed with plaster of Paris and white of egg for the Did the Ancient Britons really dye themselves blue? Caesar
clearly says they did: ‘All the Britons stain themselves with
pale shades; the plant was bruised with vinegar and urine and set in the sun to Woad (vitrum), which produces a blue colour and gives them
a more horrible appearance in battle.” Pliny says, however,
make the darker shades. **) “There is a plant like Plantain, called in Gaul glastum, with
.
Continued overleaf
*J.B. Hurry, The Woad Plant.
** Quoted by Violetta Thurston in an article in the Journal of Weavers, Spinners, and Dyer’s of Great
Britain.

79
 which the wives and daughters of the Britons smear their Woad prefers a rich, limy soil and still grows in England, especially in East
bodies in certain ceremonies and go naked, being of the colour
of Ethiopians; while Ovid speaks ofour ancestors as Virides Anglia, as an escape from the old woad fields. A biennial herb of the family
(green) Britannos. Lastly, Herodian refers to the Ancient
Britons as being ignorant of the use of clothes, but ‘They
Cruciferae, it bears small yellow flowers with its characteristic four petals on top
mark their bodies with various figures of all kinds of animals, of a thin stem, two to five feet high. The leaves, which resemble light green
spinach, grow in a rosette on the ground and most of the way up the stem. They
which is the reason they wear no clothes for fear of hiding
these figures.”
Caesar and Pliny, then, agree as to the use of Woad as a
decorative pigment, but Caesar says it was blue, Pliny that it
last through the winter in my garden, but the best to pick for dye are the
was black, while Ovid, although not mentioning the exact succulent young leaves, about six to eighteen inches high in June or July. These
substance, refers to our ancestors as “‘green’’, and Herodian
intimates that they were tattooed. It is quite possible that each will be replaced by new growth.
ofthese writers is more or less correct, for Woad will yield not
| only a blue pigment — which, however, is often more or less
The plants are reproduced from the brownish purple pendulous pods, which
green — but even more easily yields a black one, as the hands are dispersed by the wind in nature. For cultivation, these should be soaked
of the Woad gatherers in autumn plainly show.
To return to our ancestors. overnight before sowing in the husk. They are planted about two inches
(1) They may have dyed themselves blue by infusing fresh
young Woad leaves in hot water, adding pearl ash or wood underground from February to midsummer. Woad needs to be kept weed-free
ashes, and washing themselves with the liquid.
(2) By substituting an excess of lime-water or by slaking
(it was one of the earliest crops to be given such care in England) and to be
quicklime in the infusion, they might have dyed themselves a thinned out to eight to ten inches.
green colour.
(3) By rubbing themselves with the juice of the plant they Some enthusiasts may want to try the old fermentation method described by
would have dyed themselves as black as the ‘‘wadmen”’ still
dye their hands every autumn when cropping and balling the
Rhind and risk the “‘foul oders” so repugnant to Queen Elizabeth, but I use a
Woad. simple contemporary method to extract the dye, even if it is not so strong or so
(4) By infusing the plant, adding a small quantity of lime
water, and drying the precipitate they could have obtained fast. A large jar with a screw top is needed and a glass rod for stirring.
nearly pure indigo with which (a) they could have tattooed
themselves, or (b) smeared it on their bodies, mixed with oil.
(5) It is most likely, however, that they obtained woad-
indigo and used it for tattooing their bodies from the scum
which rises to the top of the vessel in which the process of
Woad dyeing is being successfully carried on. This was RECIPE FOR WOAD
probably the source from which Pliny’s chalk was stained
blue, as it was that from which the missal illuminators of
mediaeval times — the pictori that Ruellius speaks of —
obtained their beautiful blue pigment.
Mordant: None necessary.
4

“Woad as a Prehistoric Pigment.’’ By Charles B. Plowright, Method: Pack the leaves in the jar, pressing down very tightly. Pour over water
M.D., in the Journal of the Royal Horticuitural Society,
1901. heated to just under boiling point and continue to press down the leaves until the
jar is full, so no air remains when the top is screwed on. Keep this at about 100°
Y, 1B (250G) YOUNG, FRESH LEAVES OR F. (40°-60° C.) for 6 to 12 hours. Allow to cool until you can see small bubbles
MORE—ENOUGH TO FILL THE VESSEL USED,
rising. Open the jar and stir in the lime or the ammonia with a glass rod, which
WHICH MUST HAVE A SCREW TOP
will generate ammonia gas. The yellowish liquid will begin to turn greenish
yellow. Now enter the clean, wetted wool. The liquor should overflow so the jar
% oz (6G) oR ABOUT 2 TSP LIME (CALCIUM can be topped without any air entering. Steep the wool for | hour. Lift the wool
OXIDE) out with the glass rod, and it will turn pale blue in contact with the air. It can be
OR immersed again, and left another % hour in the topped jar. On lifting it out,
A FEW TBSP LIQUID AMMONIA (THE AMOUNT again the color will become deeper. This may be repeated until the bath is
DEPENDS ON THE SIZE OF THE CONTAINER) exhausted. As the liquor loses strength, add a generous pinch of bran to
reactivate the fermentation. Steep the wool another 4% hour. Then add another 2
A GENEROUS PINCH OF BRAN, IF AVAILABLE teaspoons of lime, and steep the wool again. This cycle of adding bran ai J lime
can be repeated until all the dye substance has been exhausted.

80
INDIGO
Indigofera tinctoria

It was certainly in very ancient times that men discovered the strange fact that
the yellow juices of the indigo shrub would dye blue on wool, cotton, and many
other fibers. The plant, whose use was highly developed in the Orient by Marco
Polo’s time, was cultivated for its dye centuries before Christ, and indigo-dyed
textiles that still hold their color have been found in Egyptian tombs and in the
Inca graves of Peru, as well as from ancient India.
Although woad makes a faster dye, it is not so bright or clear as indigo, which
was much sought after when it was introduced into Europe by the Dutch in the
sixteenth century. Until about 1670, the English sent their bolts of white cloth to
Holland to be dyed, but then an enterprising Dutch dyer set up a workshop and
taught indigo-dyeing to the English.
The French were also skilled dyers; like the Dutch they excelled in making
marvelous tapestries that covered the drafty walls of their palaces. (The art of
tapestry has recently been revitalized in France by the discovery that it is not an
unlimited but a deliberately /imited range of carefully chosen colors that gives
tapestry its beauty.) During the Napoleonic wars, when trade with the East was
halted and indigo became scarce, the French government offered a reward for
the discovery of a new dye that could be cultivated in Europe. But nothing better
was found than the old method of ‘“‘bottoming”’ with woad for fastness and
“topping” with the precious indigo for brightness.
Indigo is an excellent dye for cotton as well as wool. The marvelous cloths of
Nigeria are still dyed in great indigo vats in the ground, and often tie-dyed, a
form of decoration that exploits the grading of the different shades of blue. A
few artist-craftsmen work as tie-dyers in this medium today.
According to the way it is used, indigo produces a variety of blues, yet they
are so distinctive that one readily recognizes the plant source. A dye book of INDIGO
There are not less than twenty-four species of this genus
1669 gives the following musical description of the shades: “‘White blue, pearly enumerated, all natives of tropical climates. In Hindostan,
blue, faint blue, delicate blue, sky blue, Queen’s blue, King’s blue, garter blue, China, Japan, the southern parts of Africa, America, Java,
and Madagascar, the various species of this plant grow in a
infernal blue.” wild state.
The real nature of indigo was not generally known in
When you buy indigo, specify “genuine natural indigo.” If you use a synthetic Europe until a long period after it had been obtained direct
from India, the country of its production, and many erroneous
indigo, which is much stronger, use only.a quarter of the quantity called for in notions existed as to its nature at a comparatively recent
the recipes. Store indigo in a tightly closed jar or can since it does tend to get a period. In the letters patent granted to the proprietors of
mines in the principality of Halberstadst, not many centuries
little damp, making weight and volume measurement difficult. ago, indigo was classed among the minerals, to obtain which
the works were permitted to be erected.
Indigo differs from all other dyes described in this book because it is not Marco Polo, indeed, who flourished in the thirteenth

soluble in water, which is the most convenient medium to penetrate the fibers we century, and who is the earliest European traveller into China
and India on record, relates that he saw indigo made in the
deal with. So the indigo is “‘reduced’”’ — that is, the oxygen is removed from it kingdom of Coulan, and describes the process by which it was
prepared. ‘Indigo’, says the old Venetian, ‘tof excellent
with sodium hydrosulfite — and it is changed into a substance called “indigo quality and large quantities, is made here (Coulan). They
procure it from an herbaceous plant, which is taken up by the
white,” which will dissolve in an alkali, in this case a caustic-soda solution. In roots and put into tubs of water, where it is suffered to remain
this state it is a yellowish liquid. After this has impregnated the fiber, the indigo till it rots, when they press out the juice. This upon being
exposed to the sun, and evaporated, leaves a kind of paste,
white is oxygenated again by exposure to the air, becoming indigo blue. Since which is cut into small pieces of the form in which to see it
brought to us.
this is insoluble in water, it will not wash out. Because alkalis such as caustic
soda are not good for wool, the minimum necessary should be used. Extreme William Rhind

fastness is obtained by slow dips in the solution followed by exposing the fibers

81
 to the air for four, ten, or twenty dips. (Persians give as many as forty dips for
fine work.) A more vivid color comes with a few stronger dips.
It is not easy to make indigo dye so fast that it does not rub off just a little on
the skin. This does not matter if one’s skin is dark, and African women test cloth
by rubbing it on their wrists to see if it is their traditional indigo and not a
synthetic.
Several of the substances used are dangerous and you must take great care
with them, especially in a household where there are children. It is wise to wear
a rubber or heavy plastic apron, and rubber gloves. You will also need a good
supply of newspaper and an old blanket, if possible. (The process is messy and
should be done out-of-doors or in a shed, or on a floor well protected by
newspaper.) A thermometer, glass rod, a glass or stoneware vessel, and a large
plastic or galvanized metal tub (with a cloth or lid to cover it) that will hold 12
gallons are necessary.
Since few people will want to go to the trouble of setting up an indigo vat for
only 4 ounces of wool, and since most dyers will want to seize the opportunity of
“bottoming” or first-dyeing fibers for later experiments in top-dyeing, the
quantities given here are for four times the usual — that is, they are for | pound
of wool (or cotton), either fiber or cloth, and 12 gallons of water. The recipe may
be halved, however, to make a 6-gallon vat. Fiber should be tied with string in
the usual way; cloth should have holding strings attached at two corners. Both
need to be weighted at the bottom to prevent them from floating on the surface
A student of the author, preparing to dip cloth of the dye.
in an indigo vat. Behind her, already dyed The recipe below is not simple but the resulting dye is faster than that |
yardage hangs on a line to dry.
obtained by an easier method. Indigo extract may be bought, but indigo grains
are much better. Since several of the substances used absorb moisture and their
weight by volume therefore varies, the quantities are given here by volume only.
Note. The recipe given-is for 1 pound of cotton or wool (lye is not good for
wool but if Iam dyeing cotton, I put in small quantities of wool for embroidery
or weaving) and 12 gallons of water.

2% CUPS SEA SALT OR COMMON SALT RECIPE FOR INDIGO

1 CUP LYE FLAKES (SODIUM HYDROXIDE) INDIGO-HYDROSULFITE STOCK SOLUTION

SCANT | CUP SODIUM HYDROSULFITE (ALSO Method: Put the water, warmed to approximately 120°F. (49°C.) into a
CALLED DIOTHONITE) PLUS ABOUT A stoneware or glass vessel and add slowly, stirring carefully, the salt, lye, and
QUARTER OF THIS AMOUNT sodium hydrosulfite, in that order. Allow each to dissolve before adding the
MORE FOR ADJUSTING THE SOLUTION next. When they are thoroughly dissolved, add the indigo a little at a time, again
stirring carefully. Leave this to stand overnight or longer. Before using, test it by
1 CUP INDIGO GRAINS dipping in a glass rod, which should come out dripping a clear pale yellow liquid.
If there are solid blue specks in the liquid or if the liquid has a greenish tinge, all
3 QTS SOFT WATER the indigo has not been reduced. Add additional teaspoons of hydrosulfite and
stir gently until you obtain a clear pale yellow.

82
INDIGO-HYDROSULFITE DYE VAT

Method: Set the vat on newspapers and wrap a blanket or more newspapers
around it and tie them securely. The covering provides insulation to maintain
the temperature. (I usually use a galvanized metal vat placed on two bricks in
my garden, and make a small fire under the vat each day to warm the bath. In
this case, of course, one does not need to wrap the vat up.) Fill the vat %4 full with
water that is about 120°-130°F. (49°-55°C.)
Note: The vat must never be heated above 140°F. (60°C.) or the dye will be
spoiled, and should be kept at about 120°F. (49°C.) or cooler.
Sprinkle in the hydrosulfite and stir gently. (This hydrosulfite is to remove the
oxygen from the water.) Leave to settle for 15 to 30 minutes. Then, with rubber
gloves on, lower the container of indigo-hydrosulfite solution, held upright,
under the surface of the warm water. Do this gently so that no bubbles are
formed. Allow the liquids to meet and tip the stock solution container gently
over so the liquids flow into each other. Do not allow air to get into the vat (you
have just gone to a lot of trouble to extract all the oxygen). Cover the vat closely
with a cloth or lid — or both — and leave to settle for at least 2 hour. Then test
with a glass rod to see if the solution is clear yellow. If it is greenish, add a
tablespoon of hydrosulfite; if there are white specks on the rod, add some lye
flakes dissolved in water. Holding the clean, wetted fiber or cloth by the
attached strings, lower it gently into the bath at the side of the vat so the weights
carry it under the surface.(Some people dip the fiber in very mild detergent and
rinse before dipping, but I simply wet it.) Keep it there, moving gently for | to 5
minutes. (Many dips and airings give a faster color than the color achieved in
one dip.) Do not let it drip into the vat — hold it over the floor (hence the
newspapers). The dripping solution, already oxidizing, would carry oxygen | TBSP SODIUM HYDROSULFITE
back into the vat.
The fiber will come out of the vat a faint yellow and will turn blue in the air in THE STOCK SOLUTION, PREPARED
a few minutes. You can dip it any number of times so long as you let it hang in BEFOREHAND
the air until it blues between dips. If the vat begins to turn greenish, it indicates
that it is becoming exhausted of dye or air is getting in. A tablespoon of 12 GALS SOFT WATER
hydrosulfite allowed to settle in it for 15 minutes may revive it. Finally, the fiber
should be hung by its holding strings, still weighted, on a line until it dries. Then | TBSP SODIUM HYDROSULFITE
wash in soapy water, rinse very thoroughly, and dry. OR
Pour the exhausted vat solution into a pit — not a river or drain — to avoid 2/3 TSP LYE FLAKES, IF NECESSARY
pollution.

83
 LOGWOOD
Haematoxylon campechianum

The logwood tree, also called campeachy wood, blackwood, and bois bleu or
blauholz, grows in Central America and northern South America. It was taken
from Campeachy on the Gulf of Mexico and successfully propagated in the
West Indies. By 1671 at least it was used in the American colonies. In 1731
Mark Catesby, an eighteenth-century naturalist who traveled in the United
States, lamented the ‘“‘bloody disputes which this useful tree has occasioned
between the Spaniards and the English,’* and expressed a wish that the
American colonists would propagate it.
LOGWOOD
The trees were cut into logs several feet long and the outer parts were chipped
This tree was first discovered in the bays of Campeachy and away to leave the valuable red core. It was a useful cargo because it could serve
Honduras, growing in the greatest luxuriance and abundance.
It was known as a dye-wood as early as the reign of Elizabeth, as ballast. The logs were sold to apothecaries, who rasped or chipped the wood,
but its use was forbidden by an act of parliament for
“abolishing certain deceitful stuffs employed in dyeing
allowed it to ferment in water for some days, and then boiled it to make dye
cloths.” The prohibition was continued until the year 1661, liquor.
the words of the act by which it was then repealed stating
“that the ingenious industry of these times hath taught the The tree, which reaches 30 to 45 feet in height, grows very rapidly in marshy
dyers of England the art of fixing colours made of logwood; so
that by experience they are found as lasting and serviceable as ground and matures in a few years.The bark is rough, dark brown, and the
the colour made with any other sort of dye-wood.”
The logwood-tree grows abundantly throughout whole
racemes of yellow flowers are followed by double-valved pods with kidney-
districts in Jamaica. Besides being cultivated as a dye-wood it shaped seeds.
is used for other purposes. It is found well adapted for making
strong full hedges, and is constantly planted for this purpose, Although as its name indicates, logwood gives a bluish or purple color, this
no other fences being seen in many parts of the island. It is
excellent for fuel, and, according to Dampier, is advan-
does not retain its brightness, and it has always been used chiefly as one of the
tageously used in hardening or tempering steel. The wood of ingredients of a black dye.
this tree is very hard and heavy; it is of a deep orange red
colour; it yields its colour both to aqueous and spirituous Today logwood can be obtained in the form of chips from dye houses, and is
menstruae, but the latter extracts it the most readily and
copiously. A decoction ofthis wood is ofdeep violet or purple not expensive. .
colour, which after a time changes to a yellowish tint, and
becomes finally black.
William Rhind
RECIPE FOR LOGWOOD
Mordant: Alum gives violet to gray, tin gives purple, chrome gives gray to near
%-1 oz (15-30G) Locwoop cuips, black, and iron added to the dyebath gives dark gray to near black.
ACCORDING TO DEPTH OF SHADE DESIRED
Method: For bright colors, put the chips in cold water and heat to hand-heat.
12 TBSP ACETIC ACID Enter the clean, wetted wool and slowly bring the bath to just under boiling
OR point, stirring constantly. Cool, rinse the wool, and shake out the chips when it is
4 TBSP VINEGAR (FOR WARM GRAY WITH dry.
CHROME) For dull colors, put the chips in cold water and heat slowly. Simmer for up to
3 hours — the longer they simmer, the stronger and duller the color. Strain off
1'%4-1% tTBsp CUTCH EXTRACT the chips and cool the liquor. If you want to obtain a good warm dark gray, use
OR chrome-mordanted wool and add acetic acid or vinegar to the bath. The
4-5 ROTTEN BLACK WALNUT HULLS (FOR addition of some cutch or walnut liquor will deepen the color.(If you have none
NEAR BLACK) previously bottled, use cutch or rotten black walnuts in the quantity given
here.) Enter the clean, wetted wool and return bath to the simmer. Simmer for
Y) TSP FERROUS SULFATE (FOR DARK GRAY) 1 hour or longer. If you are using iron to darken the color, add it for the last 15
minutes of dyeing. Rinse the wool twice and dry.

*From Natural History of Carolina, Florida and the Bahama Islands, London, 1771.

84
SAFFLOWER
Carthamus tinctorius

This plant is also known as bastard saffron, false saffron, American saffron,
dyer’s saffron, distaff thistle, and dyer’s thistle. (It is not related to Crocus
sativus, commonly called “saffron,” though both are used for yellow dye.)
Safflower, long cultivated in India, China, and Egypt as well as southern Europe,
is of unknown origin. It is included here more for its historical interest than its
usefulness. This was the dye used to bind legal documents — the pinkish red of
“red tape.”’ It is still used in the manufacture of rouge and lipsticks, as, Rhind
reminds us, it was by the ancient Chinese. It is also used for coloring liqueurs.
To obtain the red dye for which safflower was treasured, particularly as a silk
dye, it is necessary to wash out the yellow dye, which is soluble in water. This
used to be done by men who treaded the florets in a trough of water. Alum,
potash, cream of tartar, and citric acid were all used to bring out the color,
which could vary from bright orange through poppy to rose. SAFFLOWER
Safflower is an annual plant that grows two to three feet high and has a whitish This plant is a native of Egypt, and the warmer climates of
Asia. It is likewise cultivated in the Levant and the southern
stem, upright but branching near the top. It has oval, spiny, sharp-pointed leaves parts of Europe. The Chinese have long known its use, and
produce from it their finest red. The colour. called by them
with bases clasping around the stem. The orange-yellow flower head is like a bing, which is used by the Japanese ladies as a cosmetic, is
made from it, and kept in little round procelain cups. “With
thistle, and it is from this part that the dye is extracted. Gather the flowers as this,” says Thunberg, “they paint, not their cheeks, as the
they open, without waiting for the whole head to ripen, because when they are Europeans do, but their lips. If the paint is very thin, the lips
appear red; but if it be laid on thick, they become of violet
fully blown, the brilliance of the color is fading. The color also deteriorates with hue, which is here considered as the greatest beauty.”
We obtain it from the East Indies and from Turkey, that
damp. Dry the flowers in the shade. from India being considered the most valuable. It is cultivated
Safflower is also made into an extract, but I have not been able to obtain it. with success in the gardens of France, but not as an article of
commerce. In Spain it is grown in gardens as marygolds are in
The following recipe is for a dull yellow; the red is too complicated to obtain. England, to colour soups, olives,and other dishes.
A smaller variety of the carthamus is cultivated in Egypt,
where it forms a considerable article of commerce, ‘‘the dyes
RECIPE FOR SAFFLOWER the Egyptians use,” says Volney, “‘are probably as old as the
time of the Tyrians,and they carry them at this day to a
perfection not unworthy that people; but their workmen,
jealous of the art, make an impenetrable mystery of the
Mordant: Alum gives yellow. process."’ Hasselquist, in his Voyage d’Egypte, describes the
manner in which the Egyptians prepare the carthamus for use.
Safflower is imported into England from India and Turkey:
Method: Put the florets in cold water and heat slowly. Simmer for % to 1 hour. the Indian is very much superior.
In Germany this plant is cultivated pretty extensively on
Strain off the florets and cool the liquor. Enter the clean, wetted wool and return light land well pulverized. It is sown in rows about eighteen
inches distance, and afterwards thinned to three or four inches
to the simmer. Simmer for | hour. Rinse the wool twice and dry. apart in the row. In September the plants begin to flower, and
the field is then gone over once a week, for six or seven weeks,
to gather the expanded florets, which are dried in a kiln in the
same manner as true saffron. Turkeys and geese are said to
feed greedily on the seed, and soon fatten on it.
William Rhind

Y LB (250) or | pT FRESH FLORETS,

PRESSED DOWN FIRMLY

85
 FUSTIC
FUSTIC
This tree is a native of Brazil and of several of the West India Chlorophora tinctoria
islands. It is tall and branching, with a fine head, smooth
leaves, and oval-shaped, solitary spines. The whole plant
abounds in a slightly glutinous milk, of ayellow sulphureous The fustic tree is tall and branching and has smooth, oval leaves. The wood is
colour. The berries are sweet and wholesome, and fed on by
birds. a sulfur-yellow color with orange veins, and the knotty parts make the best dye.
The precise period of its introduction into Europe as a
dyeing substance is not exactly known, but it was certainly
Since the yellow fustic gives is not as bright as that from weld or buckthorn,
soon after the middle of the seventeenth century as at about and both of these are easily available, it has usually been used for compound
that time we find it noticed among the dyeing drugs in use. It
is now in very extensive demand in our dye-houses under the colors, especially with indigo to make ‘‘Saxon green’? and mordanted with
name of fustic.
This wood is, however, found more efficient in some chrome to make “drab.”’ Our ancestors must have often had to be content with
mixtures ofcolours. It is much employed in combination with
indigo, to dye what is called Saxon green. With an iron basis it
the dull colors described by “‘fustian,’’ and they must have welcomed clear
dyes drab, and with an aluminous basis olive colours. This bright colors for contrast.
colouring matter is never applied to calico-printing, since the
English dyers have hitherto been unsuccessful in producing Fustic is available from dye houses in the form of chips, and is also made up
from it anything like an equal degree of clearness or
brightness with that of weld or quercitron.
as an extract, which I have not been able to obtain.
Fustic is imported into England in large quantities, chiefly
from Cuba and Jamaica. That from Cuba is very superior,
and usually obtains fifty per cent higher price than that from
Jamaica. It is admitted into England at the nominal duty of
three shillings per ton from British possessions, and of four
RECIPE FOR FUSTIC
shillings and sixpence from other countries.

William Rhind Mordant: None necessary, but the dye can be made much more fast with a
mordant. Chrome gives warm yellow, alum gives lemon yellow, and tin gives a
bright yellow which is less fast. Alum should be used if the yellow is to be
overdyed for olive greens.

Method: If you use chips, steep them overnight in the water to be used for
dyeing; if you use extract, dissolve it in the water and heat slowly. Simmer 1
% oz (14G) rustic cHiPs hour for bright colors and up to 3 hours for dull colors. Strain off the chips, if
OR used, and cool the liquor. Enter the clean, wetted wool and return bath to the
Ye oz (3.5G) or 2 TSP FUSTIC EXTRACT simmer. Simmer for 30 minutes; longer will dull the color. Rinse the wool twice
and dry.

86
0. Dyes for Cotton, Linen, and Silk

Wool has much more affinity for plant dyes than any other natural fiber,
and it is for wool that most dyes are developed during the past centuries (though
there are probably many dyes for cottons developed by the American Indians
and in Africa and Asia that have not been recorded). So most of the recipes in
this book are for wool. In addition, since cotton dyeing is more complicated and
less satisfactory, the beginner is advised to experiment with wool. Nevertheless,
because in some places cotton may be more convenient than wool, this chapter
deals with some of the plants that dye cotton, and some dyes that are especially
suitable for linen and silk are mentioned.
Most cotton sold in hanks or skeins for crochet and embroidery will already
have been scoured and bleached, or offered in its natural cotton color, which is a
pleasant base for dyes. So most readers will not be concerned with the following
paragraphs and will proceed to mordant. Mordanting is very important with
cotton dyeing. Recipes for cotton and linen mordants are given below. For those
who work with less fully prepared cotton fiber, however, the following notes are
given.

SCOURING COTTON

To remove before dyeing any natural wax or other substance left in 4 ounces
(120 grams) of cotton, put the cotton in soft water, heat, and boil for | hour.
Rinse the cotton, and then boil it for 1 to 1% hours in | gallon of soft water in
which | cup of soft soap (see page 17) or | tablespoon soapflakes and 2
teaspoon washing soda have been dissolved. Rinse thoroughly.

87
 BLEACHING COTTON AND LINEN

To bleach natural cotton for dyeing very pale colors, or to bleach linen, use a
bath of common household chlorine bleach in the proportions given by the
manufacturer. Or mix 2 tablespoons ofchloride of lime with a cup of soft water,
allow the sediment to settle, and add the clear liquid to the bleach bath. Soak the
cotton in the bath for 2 to 3 hours, stirring occasionally. Then hang the fiber in
the sun to air for a few hours. Repeat the soaking and airing until the fiber is
white enough.
The soapwort plant (Saponaria officinalis) was used traditionally as a gentle
bleach and cleaner, and is still used for extremely delicate fibers, but the process
is too lengthy for the dyer’s use.

MORDANTING COTTON AND LINEN

Mordanting silk is discussed at the end of this chapter. A few dyes, such as
walnut, will dye cotton without a mordant, but mordanting is generally
important with cotton. For mordanting the fiber must be clean, and it should be
wetted. Unlike wool and silk, cotton and linen may be boiled.
The following recipes are for 4 ounces of cotton and | gallon of water. Soft
water is preferable. The first recipe is practical for most purposes, but serious
4 oz (120c) cotton, LINEN, OR MIXTURES dyers will want to use the more thorough method.
MAINLY OF THESE FIBERS

2 oz (60c) or 3 TBSP ALUM

TO MORDANT COTTON AND LINEN WITH ALUM-TANNIN
2% oz (75c) or 12 TBsp POWDERED OAK — A QUICK METHOD
GALLS, GROUND IN HOUSEHOLD GRINDER
OR
LIQUOR FROM 2 0z (60G) oR A LARGE Method: Dissolve the alum and soda in a little boiling water and add to the rest
HANDFUL SUMAC LEAVES BOILED IN A of the water. Enter the clean, wetted fiber. Slowly bring the bath to the boiling
LITTLE WATER FOR 2 HOUR AND STRAINED point, stirring occasionally, and boil the fiber for 1 hour. Let bath cool a little
OR and add the oak galls or tannic acid dissolved in a little water, or the sumac
Y% oz (7c) or 12 TSP TANNIC ACID liquor. Keep bath at the simmer for | hour. Stir from time to time. Leave the
fiber to cool in the bath overnight. In the morning, remove the fiber, squeeze out
% oz (7G) oR 2 TSP WASHING SODA the excess water, and rinse. Dye the fiber immediately, or dry and store in a dry
place for future use.

TO MORDANT COTTON AND LINEN WITH ALUM-SODA

4 oz (120G) cotton, LINEN, OR MIXTURES

MAINLY OF THESE FIBERS Method: Dissolve the alum and soda in a little boiling water and add to the rest
of the water. Enter the clean, wetted fiber. Slowly bring the bath to the boiling
1 oz (30c) (1% TBsp) ALUM point, stirring occasionally, and boil the fiber for | hour. Leave the fiber in the
bath overnight. In the morning, remove the fiber and squeeze out the excess
% oz (7c) (2 Tsp) WASHING SODA water. Dye the fiber immediately, or wrap in a towel, dry in a warm place, and
store for future use.

88
TO MORDANT COTTON AND LINEN WITH ALUM-
TANNIN-ALUM — TRADITIONAL METHOD
4 oz (120c) cotton

Method: Begin exactly as in the preceding recipe for alum-soda, again leaving NOTE: Twice THE FOLLOWING
the fiber to cool in the bath overnight. In the morning, make a fresh bath with QUANTITIES OF ALUM AND SODA WILL BE
the powdered oak galls or liquor from sumac leaves. Enter the cotton, and bring NEEDED, AS TWO BATHS ARE REQUIRED.
to the boil. Boil for 1 hour. Leave the fiber to cool in the bath overnight again. In
the morning, remove the fiber, squeeze slightly, and rinse. Then prepare a 1 oz (30c) or 1% TBsP ALUM
second alum-soda bath, enter the fiber, and again bring to the boiling point. Boil
the fiber for 1 hour and leave to cool in the bath overnight again. In the morning, Y4 oz (7G) oR 2 TSP WASHING SODA
remove the fiber, squeeze out the excess water, and rinse. Dye the fiber
immediately or dry and store in a dry place for future use. 22 OZ POWDERED OAK GALLS, GROUND IN
Some plants can only be used at one season, or are better used ther, so I have HOUSEHOLD GRINDER
arranged the recipes seasonally again. Under the Winter heading are dyes that OR
are used in a dried form or in chips or extracts, which can be used at any time. In 2 oz (60G) oR A LARGE HANDFUL SUMAC
this way, some range of color, even if much more limited than with wool, can be LEAVES
obtained with cotton in any season.

Recipe for Spring

SMARTWEED
Polygonum hydropiper

This nearly glabrous, erect annual weed of the northern hemisphere is found
in dampish ground. It grows to about 2 feet and has tiny pedicules of greenish
flowers. It is burning to the taste; it is also known as water-pepper. In the
eighteenth century it was considered the most durable yellow dye in parts ofthe
United States where weld was not available. It is very color fast. Smartweed is
also suitable for wool mordanted with alum or chrome.

Mordant: Alum-tannin-alum gives yellow to gold.

Method: Steep the plant for a few days in the water to be used for dyeing. Heat
slowly and simmer for just a few minutes. Reduce the temperature slightly and
cook for 4 hour more. Strain off the plant material and enter the clean, wetted
cotton. Bring the bath to just under the boiling point and keep at this 2 QTS WHOLE PLANTS EXCEPT ROOTS,
temperature for | hour. For a stronger color, leave the cotton in the bath to cool. CHOPPED
Rinse the cotton and dry.

89
 Recipes for Summer

REEDS
Phragmites species

BROOMSEDGE
Andropogon virginicus

Reeds have a stout creeping underground stem and slender spikelet leaves.
They grow 2 to 3 feet high and are found in damp places. The florets are short
tufts of silky red-brown hair. Broomsedge is a common wayside grass about 2 to
3 feet tall with narrow pointed leaves breaking from high on the stem. The
flowers are erect feathery tufts. Both reeds and broomsedge also dye wool
yellow with alum mordant and a brass color with chrome mordant.
XX

Mordant: Alum-soda or alum-tannin-alum gives yellows.

8-12 oz (250-360G) BROWNISH PINK
HEADS OF REEDS OR LEAVES AND STALKS OF Method: Put the pieces. in cold water and heat slowly. Simmer for 2 hours.
BROOMSEDGE PICKED YOUNG AND GREEN, Strain off the plant material and enter the clean,wetted cotton. Bring the bath to
CHOPPED OR BRUISED just under the boiling point and keep at this temperature for 4 to 1 hour. Rinse
the cotton and dry.

WELD
Reseda luteola

See page 45 for a description of weld and the recipe for dyeing wool. It is also
a good dye for silk, which is mordanted and treated in the same way as wool.
3-6 oz (90-180G) WHOLE PLANTS EXCEPT Pick weld in summer before it seeds.
ROOTS, FRESH OR DRIED, ROUGHLY CHOPPED
Mordant: Alum-tannin-alum gives yellow.
% oz (7c) or 1% tBsp POWDERED CHALK
Method: Put the pieces in cold water and heat slowly. Simmer for up to 3
1 oz (30G) or A SCANT TBSP CRUSHED hours. Strain off the plant material and stir in the chalk and copper sulfate.
COPPER SULFATE Enter the clean, wetted cotton and bring bath to just under the boiling point.
Keep at this temperature for 2 to 1% hours. Rinse the cotton and dry.

90
MARIGOLD
Tagetes species

ce page 49 for a description of the marigold and the recipe for dyeing wool.

Mordant: Alum-tannin-alum gives yellow.

Method: Put the flower heads in cold water and heat slowly. Simmer for 10 to 15
minutes. Strain off the heads and enter the clean, wetted cotton. Bring the bath 1-2 gars FRESHLY PICKED FLOWER HEADS
to just under the boiling point and keep at this temperature for 20 to 30 minutes. 9p 4 tHIs QUANTITY DRIED FLOWER HEADS
‘Rinse the cotton and dry.

COTTON FLOWERS
Gossypium species

This is the plant from which cotton fibers are produced. It is too well known in
the regions where it grows to merit description here. It also dyes wool,
producing a bright orange-yellow without a mordant.
Y QT DRIED COTTON FLOWERS, CRUSHED
Mordant: Alum-tannin-alum gives yellow. MGur

Method: Steep the cotton flowers in the water to be used for dyeing for 15to 20 jrrerpary
minutes, strain, and enter the clean, wetted cotton. Bring bath to just under the 114 gcp vinecar
boiling point and keep at this temperature for 4 hour. For atancolor, enter the ,,,,
cotton ma hotvafterbath of vinegar and chrome and simmer for 10 ‘to IS ....iseop Gurome PER GAL OF WATER
minutes. Keep afterbath covered. Rinse the cotton and dry.

91
 Recipes for Autumn
] QT AUTUMN BERRIES, GLOWING RED AND
SUMAC
BRUISED
Rhus species

AFTERBATH See page 60 for a description of sumac and the recipe for dyeing wool.
SCANT 2 TSP FERROUS SULFATE PER GAL
OF WATER
Mordant: Alum-soda gives light yellow-tan, iron (afterbath) for gray.

Method: Put the berries in cold water and steep overnight in the water to be used
for dyeing. Heat slowly and simmer for 2 hours. Strain off the berries and enter
the clean, wetted cotton. Bring the bath to the simmer and simmer for 20 to 30
minutes, testing for the color — longer may spoil it. For a gray color, enter the
cotton in a hot afterbath of iron and simmer for 10 to 15 minutes. Rinse the
cotton and dry.

2 oz (60c) or 2/3 CUP DRIED BERRIES, BUCKTHORN

CRUSHED, OR 4 THIS QUANTITY OF EXTRACT Rhamnus caroliniana and R. cathartica

AFTERBATH See page 71 for a description of buckhorn and the recipe for dyeing wool.
2 TBSP VINEGAR Buckthorn extract is available from dye houses and some drug suppliers.
AND
SCANT 2 TSP CHROME PER GAL OF WATER Mordant: Alum-tannin-alum with chrome after bath gives warm yellow to tan.
4

Method: If berries are used, put them in cold water, heat slowly, simmer for 4
hour, and strain; if extract is used, stir it into the bath and enter the clean, wetted
cotton. Bring the bath to just under the boiling point and keep at this
temperature for 20 to 40 minutes. Then enter the cotton in a hot afterbath of
vinegar and chrome and simmer, covered, for 10 to 15 minutes. Rinse the cotton
and dry.

BUTTERNUT
Juglans cinerea

This 80-foot-high tree of North America has twigs of a purplish brown and
lanceolate leaves. The fruit is large and sticky and the nut is prominently ridged.
Butternut also dyes wool with an alum mordant.

Mordant: Alum-tannin-alum gives brown to green, iron gives a good gray.

2 QTS GREEN BUTTERNUT HULLS

Method: Steep the hulls in the water to be used for dyeing for % hour and then
heat slowly. Simmer for 30 minutes. Strain off the hulls and enter the clean,
AFTERBATH
wetted cotton. Bring the bath to just under the boiling point and keep at this
SCANT 1/2 TSP FERROUS SULFATE PER GAL
temperature for about 30 minutes. This will give a color from brown to green,
OF WATER
depending on the condition of the hulls. For gray, enter the cotton in a hot
afterbath of iron and simmer for 10 to 20 minutes. Rinse the cotton and dry.

92
Recipes for Winter

BLACK OAK
Quercus velutina

RED OAK
Quercus borealis

HICKORY
Carya tomentosa

WESTERN HEMLOCK
Tsuga heterophylla

All these trees are described in Chapter 3, and recipes for dyeing wool are
given.

Mordant: Alum-tannin-alum gives gold with black oak, rose-tan with red oak,
gold to orange with hickory and rose-tan with western hemlock. 1 QT BARK, CHOPPED

Method: Steep the bark overnight or longer in the water to be used for dyeing. AFTERBATH (FOR RED OAK AND WESTERN
Heat slowly and simmer for 2 hours. Strain off the bark and enter the clean, HEMLOCK)
wetted cotton. Bring the bath to just under the boiling point and keep at this 2 TBSP VINEGAR
temperature for 2 to | hour. To bring out the color with red oak, chittam, and AND
western hemlock, enter the cotton in a hot afterbath of vinegar and chrome and SCANT 2 TSP CHROME PER GAL OF WATER
simmer, covered, for 10 minutes. Rinse the cotton and dry.

ONION SKINS
Allium cepa

See page 23 for the recipe for dyeing wool. Onion skins do not give the quick
and dramatic effects with cotton that they produce with wool, but they provide a
useful dye.

Mordant: Alum-tannin-alum gives yellow.

Y-1 oz (15-30G) oR A LARGE HANDFUL
Method: Put the onion skins in cold water and heat slowly. Simmer for | hour. ONION SKINS, CRUSHED
Strain off the oinon skins and enter the clean, wetted cotton. If the cotton has
not been premordanted, stir in the alum and oak gall before entering the cotton. 1% TBsP ALUM
Bring the bath to just under the boiling point and keep at this temperature for up AND
to | hour. This gives a soft yellow. By using three times the quantity of alum and 1 OAK GALL, GROUND (IF COTTON IS NOT
three or four oak galls, I get shades from yellow-green through to a soft olive PREMORDANTED)
(the stickiness that too much alum gives to wool is much less noticeable with
cotton). To deepen the colors, add the iron to the bath for the last 15 minutes of A PINCH OF FERROUS SULFATE (OPTIONAL)
dyeing.Rinse the cotton and dry.

93
 MADDER
Rubia tinctorum

See pages 74-78 for a description of madder and the recipes for dyeing wool.

Mordant: Alum-tannin-alum gives dark red.

Cotton dyeing is done with successive baths, so the given quantities must be
multiplied several times, depending on the depth of color desired.
Ya-1 oz (15-30G) or 1%-1% tBsp
COMMERCIALLY PRODUCED MADDER Method: If you are using powder, add it to the water and stir; if you use roots,
POWDER OR AT LEAST 3 TIMES THIS AMOUNT put them in a mesh bag and enter together with the clean, wetted cotton. Slowly
OF CHOPPED ROOTS bring the bath to hand-heat, about 90°-100°F. (32°-38°C.) and keep at this
temperature for | hour. Leave the cotton to cool in the bath overnight. Adding
] GAL HARD WATER the washing soda, dissolved in a little boiling water, just before the bath has
begun to cool, will help the color to develop. To obtain a darker color repeat the
Y4 TSP WASHING, SODA (OPTIONAL) procedure with a new infusion of madder. When the desired depth of color has
been obtained, rinse the cotton and dry.

FUSTIC
Chlorophora tinctoria

OSAGE-ORANGE
Maclura pomifera

CUTCH
Acacia species

See page 86 for a description of fustic and the recipe for dyeing wool.
Osage-orange is a shrubby American tree belonging to the mulberry family.
The spicy branches bear broad, lanceolate entire leaves. The flowers are
greenish in round clusters, and the fruit is a round, yellowish green apple shape.
Osage-orange is also known as bow-wood. This is a plant I have not had the
opportunity to try myself, but I have it on good authority from American dyers.

94
 Cutch is the name applied to the dye-bearing parts of two tropical trees, the
Bengali Acacia catechu, whose dye resides in the colored heartwood and pods,
and Arica catechu, the Asian palm that yields betel nuts. Y-1 oz (15-30G) Fustic OR OSAGE-
ORANGE CHIPS OR 14 THIS AMOUNT OF
Mordant: Alum-tannin-alum gives yellow with fustic and yellow-tan with osage CUTCH EXTRACT
orange. Cutch needs no mordant beforehand.
AFTERBATH
Method: If chips are used, put them in cold water, heat slowly, simmer for 20 2 TBSP VINEGAR
minutes to | hour and strain off the chips. If cutch extract is used, stir it in and AND
enter the clean, wetted cotton. Bring bath to just under the boiling point and SCANT 2 TSP CHROME PER GAL OF WATER
keep at this temperature for 30 minutes. Enter in a hot afterbath of vinegar,
chrome, and (if cutch is used) copper sulfate and simmer, covered, for 10 Y4 TSP COPPER SULFATE (WITH CUTCH ONLY)
minutes. Rinse the cotton and dry.

INDIGO
Indigofera tinctoria

Indigo is an excellent dye for cotton and has been used all over the world for
this fiber. To dye cotton, follow the recipe on page 82. It does not need a
mordant, but the color can be varied by mordanting with alum-soda or alum-
tannin-alum.

SOME DYES FOR SILK

Silk is mordanted in the same way as wool, although a little more alum and a
little less tin than used for wool are advisable. Iron is not used on silk. Silk must
be well washed in hot soapy water before mordanting or dyeing. The dyeing
process is the same as for wool, but about double the amount of dyestuff should
be used because silk has less affinity for plant dyes and because the temperature
must be kept a little lower — about 185°F. (85°C.) — to preserve the lustrous
quality of the silk. Since silk is slower to take up the dye, it is also a good idea to
leave it to steep in the dyebath for some hours or overnight after dyeing. Then it
should be rinsed thoroughly and dried.
Of the historical dyes, cochineal, indigo, and kermes are all excellent for silk,
and madder may also be used. Among the other plant dyes that are good silk
dyes are turmeric, weld, marigold, barberry, and lily of the valley for yellow;
black oak for orange; tobacco, pokeberry, and acorns for browns; sloe for rose-
purple and elderberry and wild grape for purples; bracken and blackberry tips
for gray; and logwood for black. Silk can be top-dyed too, so a combination of
marigold and indigo, or cochineal and indigo, will give greens and purples.

95
 6. Top-Dyeing

The colors available to the dyer from single plants, even considering the
variety possible from different durations of dyeing and different mordants, are
still far from evenly distributed over the spectrum. In most cases foliage dyes .
yellow to green, the majority of barks, yellow or brown to mushroom-pink. We
get red from some roots, and various colors from flower heads. But by top-or
double-dyeing, or over-dyeing, as it is sometimes called, a much greater variety
can be obtained. Since dyeing one color over another always tends to dull the
final color, it is best to use clear, bright colors for the first dye. Weld, madder,
and indigo are all great standbys. It is usually better to dye the lighter color first.
When dyeing with any of the bright yellows, such as weld, fustic, buckthorn,
or dyer’s greenwood, I dye a number of extra skeins to keep for top-dyeing. The
lemon-yellows of buckthorn, broom, and barberry and the greenish yellows of
lily-of-the-valley, broomsedge, and heather, all mordanted with alum or tin, are
the best bases to combine with blue for top-dyed greens. Dyer’s greenwood was
for many centuries top-dyed with woad to make greens. Nowadays usually
indigo is used to get bright greens. (Since setting up an indigo vat just to top-dye
for green or purple is a lot of trouble, when I have an indigo vat going I dye
many different fibers and samples of cloth, so that I can have them ready to top-
dye when occasion arises.) The warm yellows of onion skins, goldenrod, and
marigold and the golds of black oak, ragwort, and weld, with chrome or alum
mordants, are naturally better for orange to coral colors, and are often top-dyed
with madder. Olive green which is a warm shade,would be made by dyeing blue
over a warm yellow rather than a cool, acid yellow.
Black is one of the most difficult colors to obtain with plant dyes (yellow flag
iris roots are the nearest I can get with one plant), so to make black I use cutch
to top-dye the darkest blue I can obtain with repeated dips of indigo. Or I top-
dye a dark blue from logwood chips with cutch mordanted with iron. If working

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only with the plants of my neighborhood, I dye the darkest brown I can get from
rotten black walnut husks, with iron added at the end, and steep the wool in the
liquor after dyeing; then I top-dye by dipping repeatedly in woad or by
simmering in sloe or blackberry liquor. Afterward I wash the wool in a soapy
solution to bring up the blue.
A few basic recipes are enough to suggest how, by top-dyeing, you can obtain
certain colors stronger or faster than is possible with only one plant.
Whatever color you dye first, it is usually better to go straight on to the
second after rinsing out the first, or to wrap the fiber in a towel overnight so that
it remains damp. If, however, the skeins have been stored for some time as I
suggested, then it is necessary to get them thoroughly wetted again by soaking
them for some hours or even overnight in a bath of warm water. Then squeeze
them (or put through a wringer at light pressure) and lay out for about 4 hour to
let the remaining dampness spread evenly throughout the fibers. If even dyeing
is important, this preparation is really necessary.

TO MAKE GREEN FROM INDIGO ON YELLOW

Use alum-mordanted wool previously dyed with weld, dyer’s greenwood, snow-
berry, broom flowers, etc., or alum-tannin-mordanted cotton dyed with
broomsedge, marigold or buckthorn.

Method: Dye the wetted yellow skeins in an indigo vat following the recipe on
page 83 and hang in the air. Dip once or twice for a yellow-green, three to five
times for a medium green, and many times for a dark blue-green. Rinse and dry.
It is also possible to dye the wool blue first, air, rinse thoroughly, and let the
fullest blue that is going to develop with oxidation come through, and then
simmer in a yellow bath. But I think it is easier to control the color by repeated
dips of blue that show what kind of green is emerging.

TO MAKE ORANGE TO FLAME FROM MADDER ON

YELLOW

Use alum-mordanted wool previously dyed with weld, dyer’s greenwood, fustic,
black oak, etc, or alum-tannin-mordanted cotton dyed with broomsedge,
marigold, turmeric, or weld.

Method: To a gallon of hard water (or soft water to which 3 teaspoons of

powdered chalk has been added), add | tablespoons alum, 2 teaspoons cream
of tartar, and 6 tablespoons madder extract. If possible, steep overnight. Heat to
just over hand-heat. Enter the clean, wetted yellow fiber, and bring the bath
slowly to the simmer. (It does not matter if the bath gets too hot in this case,
since you are aiming at orange, and madder yields yellows at higher
temperatures, but simmering should be enough to produce a firm dye.)
According to the depth of orange required, simmer the wool for 10, 20 or 30
minutes. Rinse and dry. Remember that the first yellow is fixed, but some ofthe
madder red will wash out in the rinsing.

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 TO MAKE PURPLE FROM COCHINEAL ON BLUE

Use wool previously dyed blue with indigoor woad. You can top-dye chrome-
mordanted wool with madder, but cochineal gives a clear, pinker red.

Method: To a gallon of soft water, add 2 tablespoons cochineal (pounded in a

mortar or steeped in a little water for some hours beforehand), 2 teaspoon
common salt, a scant 2 teaspoon stannous chloride, and 2 teaspoons cream of
tartar, and heat slowly. Simmer for up to 15 minutes. Enter the clean, wetted
blue fiber and simmer until the desired depth of color is reached. Rinse and dry.
Remember that some of the red will rinse out, but if the fiber is a blue-purple
when dried, it may be entered again for a second simmering.

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7. Lichen Dyes

Lichens are a very unusual kind of plant, composed of two different

organisms — tiny blue-green algae (related to the common free-living algae) and
colorless fungal threads. “These two components grow together in harmonious
association referred to as symbiosis, or simply ‘living together.’ Lichen
symbiosis, however, differs basically from all other kinds in that a new plant
body, the thallus, is formed, and this thallus has no resemblance to either a
fungus or an algae growing alone. This new composite organism behaves as a
single independent.’’* Thus lichens differ from mosses, which have a rudimen-
tary differentiation into stems and leaves and are green because they make
chlorophyll.
Lichens grow in many different parts of the world, in all temperatures and at
most altitudes. They grow on the ground, by the seashore, on trees (where it is
difficult to separate them from the bark), on rocks and houses and roofing tiles.
But above all they grow in the tundra regions and on the mountains, higher than
any other plants. Whereas trees did not grow above 13,500 feet nor flowering
plants above 18,000 feet, lichens were found on Mount Everest above 20,000
feet. This means that they serve a most important purpose in clothing the earth.
In the tundra of Lapland they support herds of reindeer, caribou, musk-ox, and
moose, on which the Lapps live. Because the herds devour great quantities of
lichen which grows very slowly, taking years to mature to fodder size, the herds
have to travel over great areas to graze, and therefore the Lapps are forced to be
nomadic people.**

*Mason Hale, Know theLichens, 1969.

**In People of the Deer, Farley Mowat, who lived with them, gives a fascinating picture of this life.

SP)
 There are thousands of species oflichens, and the dye properties of multitudes
have probably not yet been discovered, but there are a few families well known
as dye-plants from which the enthusiast can obtain a sure dye. Meanwhile one
can experiment with any others that can be found.
The lichens have other interesting uses besides dyeing. In 1866 an
archaeological investigation of prehistoric remains at Lake Constance in
Switzerland found, far down below layers of peat, and among reindeer horns
and bones, stores of lichen — probably in reserve for animal food. It is still used
as human food by the Laplanders in times of scarcity, and has saved the lives of
starving Arctic explorers. ‘‘Iceland moss”’ and “‘reindeer moss’’ — names given
before the distinctive nature of lichens was understood — are dried, powdered,
mixed with flour, and baked as bread or boiled with milk into a broth. The bitter
taste arising from the very acids that make them valuable as a dye can in food be
neutralized with soda.
In the arid lands of North Africa and the Near East occurs the manna lichen
(Lecanora esculenta), which is blown down the mountain sides and collects
inches deep in the valleys. It used to be thought that this was the ‘“‘manna”’ of the
Bible and it was named ‘“‘Bread from Heaven,”’ but this is no longer accepted.
Lichens have been used in tanning as well as in brewing, for the thallus will
ferment in dilute acid. But this process could never be carried out on any great
scale because once stripped from the neighborhood, lichens grow too slowly to
make it economical.
Lichens have also been used in perfumery along with other plants because the
thallus has the power of retaining scent. John Gerard’s Herbal of 1597
mentions a moss that ‘“‘is to be used in compositions which serve for sweet
perfumes and that takes away wearisomeness.” This was probably oak moss
(Evernia prunastri). It was used in scented hair powders and is still used in
potpourri, where layers of freshly gathered flowers and lichens are placed
alternately. The flowers are renewed each day until the lichens are permeated
with their distinctive scent — roses, carnations, or whatever.
Lichens were used as a medicine from very ancient times (some Iceland moss
was found in an Egyptian tomb of the Eighteenth Dynasty) but with doubtful
efficacy. But there is no question about the age-old value of lichen dyes. When
the prophet Ezekiel said, “blue and purple from the isles of Elishah was that
which covered thee,” he may well have been referring to colors from lichens.
Pliny the Elder wrote of “‘the crisp leaves used in Crete for dyeing garments,”
which was probably the lichen Roccella, for it had long been known in the Near
East, and the Phoenicians used it. The Tyrian purple of the classical world,
mentioned in Chapter 4, which was made from the Murex shellfish, was so
precious that an extract of it was often dyed over the purple made from
Roccella. Gradually the use of Murex died out, until the lichen alone provided
the purple dye, and still does. Roccella flourished on the Mediterranean coasts,
and new sources were found in the Canaries and Cape Verde Islands in the
eighteenth century. When these sources declined in the following century, India
and Ceylon supplied Britain, and the dye was imported into America ready for
use. One American dyer, writing of lichens in 1869, spoke of the “peculiar

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softness and velvet bloom it communicates to colors.” * Since the Roccella had
to be imported at great expense from the Mediterranean shores or farther east,
it came to be supplemented by Scandinavian lichens and lichens indigenous to
the United States, gathered by country people and dispatched to dye centers.
The first synthetic chemical dye, produced in Germany in the mid-nineteenth
century, was a strong purple — in contrast to the soft muted colors of the lichen
and other natural dyes. The quality of the color is of course one way of dating
textiles of this period; the harsh brightness of the new dye, which was taken up
with indiscriminate enthusiasm, strikes an alien note. Unlike the earlier
synthetics, plant dyes seem to grow together as they fade over the centuries.
In Scotland and Ireland lichen dyeing was extensively used and has continued
to be, especially in the cottage industries. No one knows how long the remote
highland and island dwellers have had this knowledge — possibly since the
Bronze Age settlers brought their metal-craft and their distinctive Celtic forms
of decoration to Ireland and Scotland. The Scottish tartans were dyed with
lichens, and they were so colorful that they were a disadvantage to the clansmen
on the hills; most families had a more somber “hunting tartan” in addition. In
the kilts and plaids of these times still extant, the old colors have faded but they
have faded consistently and together produce a mellow effect. Now a new range
of these shades, more subtle than the late-nineteenth century synthetic tartan
colors, is being manufactured under the name of “‘the ancient colors,”’ and very
beautiful they are.
The highland tweed industry used lichen and seaweed dyes until recently, and
the distinctive smell of them lingers for years. As a child I had an orange-pink
Harris tweed wool coat of a color that I never saw again until I got it by
experimenting myself. All this knowledge was handed on for centuries by word
of mouth and there were very few written references before our generation.**
The use of lichen dyes is known to the Indians of the southwest United States
and we have a record of Navajos boiling the Parmelia molluscula with natural
alum to get orange, and leaving it in the dyebath overnight to get a reddish tan.
Juniper ashes were used as an alternative mordant.
Because they are widespread over the globe, because they can be dried and
used in winter, and because they do not need a mordant, lichens offer a rich
source to the plant dyer and entice us to explore a field where there is still a great
deal of original discovery to be made.

GENERAL NOTES ON COLLECTING LICHENS

All lichens grow rather slowly, many taking fifty to a hundred years to reach the
size of a hand, so all but the commonest should be gathered without waste.
Some are so rare that they should not be wantonly removed. They all swell in the
rain and so are easier to gather in damp weather, and they are commoner and
*Quoted by Rita Adrosko in Natural Dyes in the United States, 1968.
** Among these references are Dr. Lauder Lindsey’s ‘“‘On the Dyeing Properties of Lichens,”
Edinburgh, 1855, and the articles on Archil Dyes and Lichens in the Encyclopaedia Britannica,
1798.

101
 more various in the damp west of Britain — Cornwall, Wales, the Lakes, and
Scotland, especially where there are exposed rocks. They flourish in the humid
atmosphere of the tropics; in arid places they rely on the heavy dew and grow
less large. They all need light and clean air — they will not survive near smoky
cities, and are in fact used as a test of air pollution.The so-called crustaceous
lichens form a crust on rocks or tree barks, and are best gathered in May and
June — after rain if possible. The ‘‘foliaceous”’ lichens expand outwards in leafy
lobes and are best gathered in early autumn after the summer heat has produced
the greatest concentration of acids. But it is possible to gather lichens at any
time of year if you avoid the dry, windy days when the powdery dust would be
lost. Scrape the lichens off with a sharp knife and gather them directly into bags
closed with a rubber band. Spread them to dry thoroughly in the sun, in an
airing cupboard, or even in a warm oven, up to 200°F. (93°C.) If they are to be
kept without going moldy, they are best hung in nylon-stocking bags in a dry
lace.
; In the old days children were taught by the family to identify the dye lichens
by sight as surely as we do vegetables today. The many thousands of lichens are
hard to describe verbally sufficiently clearly to make identification sure, so I will
give only the briefest description of a few main ones. Eileen Bolton’s excellent
book, Lichens for Vegetable Dyeing, has color pictures and enlargements. But
the best method is to make a quick test of a little bit of every lichen you find by
simmering it with a skein of wool in an enamel mug or ovenproof glass, and to
keep some of the lichen itself dried with the dyed wool.

GENERAL PRINCIPLES FOR DYEING WITH LICHENS

As a rough guide, use 4 ounces (120 grams) of lichen to 4 ounces of wool for
testing; however, many lichens have a great amount of dye potential and you will
need much less: only an ounce or less of many that are fermented with ammonia
(as described below).
Since the dye acids may lie under the skin of the plant or right in the center, it
is very important to bruise the fresh plants well between the hands or shred with
kitchen scissors, and to crumble the dry lichens, breaking across the whole
center.
The powdery and coral-like growths on the surface may contain dye, so it is
better not to wash lichens. Dust and small insects will not affect the dye but
tannin will, so pick out scraps of bark. Lichens swell in water, and you must
allow for this in the size of the dyebath, but many lichens are better soaked the
night before and boiled up in the same water. Water from streams that have run
through peat bogs are better for lichen dyes than water that is artificially
softened. I have tried soaking a bit of peat in a pail of rainwater to use in my
hard-water district.
Without going into the complexities of the thousands of lichen species and the
different acids that affect the color (the same lichens may develop different acids
in different continents), the amateur dyer can put lichens in four categories:
1) Lichens that yield their dye with boiling only.
2) Lichens that yield their dye with fermentation with ammonia.

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The process of steeping lichens in some form of ammonia is referred to as
“maceration,” and lichens like the Roccellas yield in this way a dye-producing
substance called archil, orchil, or cudbear, which can be isolated and dried. This
extract can be obtained from some dyehouses.
3) Lichens that yield different colors from the two methods.
4) Lichens that yield no dye by any known method.
There is a simple test by which to know if a lichen will yield its dye by
fermentation.* The presence of two of the acids that yield a deep red or purple
dye when fermented in ammonia can be detected by a simple household bleach
containing chlorine (calcium hypochlorite) or caustic lye (potassium hydroxide).
It is caustic, so handle it with care. The chlorine bleach is abbreviated ‘‘Cl’’ here,
since chlorine is the active agent, and the lye is shortened to the common
“KOH.”
These chemicals react on the thallus, so you must scrape away the outer skin
of the lichen with a sharp knife, until a small spot of the white under-layer is
exposed.
Apply a drop ofCl or KOH to this spot — an eyedropper is convenient. If the
exposed surface turns red, this lichen will yield to fermentation. If neither C1 or
KOH produce this reaction, then try boiling. A quick way to establish whether a
lichen will yield a dye is the contact method of boiling, described below.
Lichens dye well on wools and silk, and one at least — dog’s tooth lichen —
dyes cotton and linen.
The lichens do not require mordants, but interesting variations of color can be
obtained by adding different substances — all the basic mordants, alum,
chrome, tin, iron, and also copper sulfate, ammonium sulfate, tannic acid. There
is still much to be explored.

Boiling Water Methods Of Dyeing With Lichens

Contact Method: A traditional Scottish method that I have often used is to pack
alternate layers of lichen and wool in the vessel, cover with soft water, and
simmer for up to 3 hours, watching to see the water does not evaporate and
topping up with boiling water. Here the dye is accepted by direct contact.

Quick Liquor Method: A more usual method is to put the lichens in soft water
(if they have been dried they should soak overnight in the water), preferably with
2 tablespoons vinegar to each gallon water. Bring slowly to boiling point and
simmer for 3 hours. I generally save time by putting the wetted wool in at the
start, but many dyers prefer to cool the bath down and put in the wool the next
day, and then slowly raise the temperature. Since lichen colors do not wash out
much, the color can be judged well when wet, and the bath is continued until you
reach the required color. You can take out samples at 10 minutes, 20 minutes,
and so on for comparison.
If the dye is slow to “trun” from the plants, you can add a few drops of

*I owe my knowledge of this test to Marie Aitken of Ontario, Canada, who has used lichens in the
Arctic,

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 ammonia to the bath; if this is not enough, try 2 or 3 teaspoonfuls. Many of the
purples are improved by adding washing soda to the dyebath. Casutic soda
(which unfortunately makes the wool brittle) also excites the color to flow.

Traditional Liquor Method: The lengthier method is to put up to 4 ounces (120

grams) of the lichen in | gallon of soft water to which a tablespoon of vinegar
has been added to make it acid. Bring this to the boiling point slowly — it should
take nearly an hour — and then keep it simmering for 3 hours longer. Allow it to
cool slowly, possibly overnight. Enter the wetted wool, and bring the whole to
simmering point again for an hour or longer, according to the strength of color.
During this time move the wool around gently from time to time. Leaving it in
the bath to cool will produce a firmer but deeper color. After this rinse it, and
when it is dry, shake to remove the scraps of lichen in it.

The dye lichens are colloquially known as “‘crottles” or “‘crottals”’ in Scotland

and Ireland. Their common names and scientific names are given here.

The following lichens yield dye by boiling.

PARMELIA CAPERATA

A pale yellowish-green leathery lichen, black underneath (except at the edges),

found on rocks or barks, this is known as green stone lichen, stone crottal, or -
arcel. It is quite common in the damper parts of Britain and in the United
States, especially on sandstone and on oak trees. It yields a good yellow with
boiling. Leaving in pieces of oak bark will give a brownish yellow.
Two other parmelias, P. furfuracer and P. perlata, give better results when
fermented.

PARMELIA SAXATILIS

Common names of this widely distributed gray plant are gray stone crottal,
stoneyraw, or scrottyie. It has an ashy powder effect on top and black
underneath with short black hairs, and grows outward in frilly lobes. It is found
mostly on rocks and stones in Britain and Scandinavia and is also common on
oak and pine trees in the United States. It is a dye of long standing in all these
countries, widely used for fine bronze color that is typical of Harris tweeds and
gives them a distinctive smell.

PARMELIA OMPHALODES

This dark purplish brown lichen, known as black crottal, crostil or arcel,
spreads in flat cushions over rocks at higher altitudes than the other parmelias,
in Britain, Scandinavia, and the United States. The underside is very black with
close black hairs. Boiling gives a fine strong red-brown with excellent fastness. It
too has the characteristic smell of Harris tweed, for which it was extensively
used.

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LOBARIA PULMONARIA

A large foliacious lichen usually on trees, especially oak, dark olive when wet
and almost brown when dry. The underside is downy and ochre-colored. Known
as lungwort or hazel crottal, it is common in Scandinavia, Britain, and
temperate regions of the United States, especially the Great Lakes and Pacific
West, where the high forests shelter it. It takes a very long time to grow and
should be harvested with great care. It makes a good brown dye, which was used
by Hereford farmworkers to dye their stockings.

HYPOGYMNIA PSYCHODES
Previously known as Parmelia physodes

This common lichen of rocks and trees, known as shield lichen or dark crottal,
has a wrinkled, swollen-looking thallus, gray on top and dark brown un-
derneath. At the lobe ends are pimples of fruits which produce a white powder.
This lichen hangs so tenuously that it often falls off. It is common in woods and
on cut wood structures and also on rocks in the mountain regions of Britain,
Scandinavia, and the United States, especially the damp Northwest. It gives a
good golden brown.

PELTIGERA CANINA

This lichen is known as dog’s tooth lichen or ash-colored ground liverwort.

Large overlapping lobes of dark greenish brown, which turn ashen and papery
on drying, characterize this lichen. It often grows on old wood stumps, and
among mosses and grass on the ground.
This lichen will dye linen yellow with an alum mordant when boiled for 30
minutes.
Another of the Pe/tigera species of America is said to give a rose-tan on wool
with %4 teaspoon chrome and 2 teaspoons vinegar. Other Peltigeras can be
fermented.

Fermentation Method Of Dyeing With Lichens

Those lichens that give a positive reaction to the test with Cl or KOH may be
treated in this way. As with the boiling method, crumble or cut fresh plants well
with scissors, and break up dry plants finely by crumbling them in the hands.
Put the pieces in a dish with a close fitting lid (I use glass jam jars with screw
tops but wide pyrex glass dishes might be easier). Pour over them a mixture of |
part ammonia to 2 parts soft water. (Some lichens will respond better to equal
parts water and ammonia, but the 1-to-2 mixture is a good general rule.) The
liquid should just cover the lichens adequately and may have to be topped up if
the mass swells. Close the container and keep it in a light, even sunny, warm
place (between 55° and 75°F. or 13° and 24°C.). Keeping the container tightly
closed is important, or the ammonia will escape. Yet the mixture must be

105
 aerated frequently if the lichen is to ferment well; you should stir it a minimum
of twice a day and much more frequently if possible, replacing the lid at once.
This is a nuisance but it does yield some wonderful dyes. (I believe that an
aeration pump for a fish tank might be the answer but I have not got further
than using a bicycle pump jammed in a short glass tube.) The dye will begin to
run, probably in a few days, and with, say, the cudbear lichen or rock tripe, you
can get a fine soft purple after 10 days to 2 weeks. The addition of a little
washing soda to the dyebath will turn this towards a blue purple, and vinegar or
acetic acid towards a red. However, the mass of fermenting material can be left
for many weeks yet to obtain a strong dark color.
When the color is running well, you can boil the whole fermenting mass of
lichen and liquor, covered lightly, into a gelatinous liquor which can be used
immediately (add enough water to give the fiber room to move freely) in the
normal dyebath routine. It can also be stored, again with the lid on, or you can
allow it to dry out and keep the powder.

The following lichens yield dye by fermentation.

UMBILICARIA PUSTULATA

This swollen, circular, single thallus called rock tripe is attached to the surface
of rocks by a single stout ‘‘navel cord” (hence its Latin name). It is dark shiny
green when wet, and when dry, velvety gray and dark brown. It grows sparsely in -
Britain and mostly in altitudes over 1,000 feet in the United States, but it is
commoner in the tundra regions. It dries well but must be kept completely dry.
It repays long maceration — up to years — in ammonia. It yields a strong bright
red when fermented.

OCHROLECHIA PARELLA
Previously known as Lecanora parella

The curious appearance of its protruding fruits gave this plant its name: crawfish
lichen, crab’s eye, or light crottal. It is a greenish gray, whitish underneath, and
crusty in its growth on stones, stone walls, and damp rocks. It was historically
important: called Orseille d’ Auverne, a variation of archil, it was gathered in the
north of England for the London archil-makers. It was long used in the
highlands of Scotland fermented with urine for the traditional orange-red of
many tartans. It also occurs in Scandinavia and the United States.

OCHROLECHIA TARTAREA
Previously known as Lecanora tartarea

This thick, crustaceous thallus, cudbear lichen or korkir, which has been
described as resembling a small cauliflower head, is whitish gray with flesh-
colored spots and grows on rocks in Britain, Scandinavia, and parts of the
United States. The traditional Scottish and Welsh crofters dried this lichen,
powdered it into urine, and after many weeks made it up into balls with lime or

106
powdered shells, which were hung up to dry. When required it was boiled up
with some alum and made a strong dark red.
My method is to crumble the lichens into a glass or plastic container with a lid
and ferment it as described. After a few days, when it is producing a good red
color, I boil it with the wool, and it produces a fine red-purple. It can be kept for
some time in firmly screw-topped jars, or it can be evaporated in a warm place
and the resulting powder stored dry. If a little washing soda is added when you
boil it, it will turn towards blue-purple; the addition of a few teaspoons of acetic
acid (or 4 tablespoons of vinegar) will bring out the redness. It is a very strong
dye if properly prepared, and less than | ounce (30 grams) will dye four times
that amount of wool.

CLADONIA IMPEXA

This fine gray lichen with much-divided hairlike branches grows among moss
and heather in Cornwall and west European countries and in similar locations in
the United States. It needs a long maceration to produce its soft pink dye.

ROCCELLA TINCTORIA

This first of the archil-producing lichens to be exploited is a Mediterranean

species but it is also found in the Channel Islands near the sea, and dyers will
want to use it for its historical interest.

The following lichens yield dye either by boiling or by fermenting.

XANTHORIA PARIETINA

This common plant, yellow wall lichen, is found on walls especially around farm
buildings, on rocks just above high-water mark, and in all the shore areas of the
United States, for it likes a salty atmosphere. Its bright orange-yellow glows in
the sun; growing in the shade, it is rather greenish-blue. The thallus may be
several inches across and has orange spots on the upper surface, while the under
surface is whitish.
It gives a fine yellow dye, tending towards tan with boiling. When it is boiled
after fermentation, with some soda added to the bath, a deep purple red is
obtained. I followed Miss Bolton’s method* and also got a fine blue from this
red. Leave the wool in the dyebath after simple boiling and allow it to stand ina
warm place until it is going “off” and smells a little. Then, on a bright sunny day
gently squeeze out the wool and put it in the sun, where it will turn quite a bright
blue; this blue fades a little at first but then retains its final color.

*See Eileen Bolton, Lichens for Vegetable Dyeing, 1960.

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 MENEGUSSIA PERTUSA

This pale greenish gray, much-frilled lichen grows on stones in Britain. With
simple boiling it yields a yellow, which is improved by the addition of a little
soda to the dyebath. After fermenting for a week it gives a fine soft pink, and if
you increase the time, it will produce a deep reddish brown. ;

USNEA BARBATA

This tree moss, called beard lichen, is the ‘idle moss’’ mentioned by
Shakespeare. Its gray-green hairs hang down a foot in length in Britain and
more in the damp parts of the United States. It gives a clear yellow by simple
boiling. Its relation Usnea lirta gives purple with fermentation.

EVERNIA PRUNASTRI

This plant, called stag’s horn, bucks horn, ragged hoary lichen, or oak moss, has
strap-shaped fronds, which first stand erect, then droop, not unlike stag’s horns,
and have an unpleasant limey smell. It is greenish gray above and white below,
and grows on trees, old wood especially (hence the plum-tree of its Latin name)
all over Britain and the temperate zones of the Unites States. It grows on a field-
maple stump in my garden. Boiled, it gives a good brown; with fermentation, a
beautiful plum purple.

As you can see, the lichens produce an extraordinary range of color. Anyone
can begin lichen dyeing anywhere, with almost no equipment, and since lichens
can be dried or stored after fermentation or boiling, this study can be carried
over the whole year, even in arctic climates. There is still a great deal to be
discovered, and a beginner who keeps careful records can both have the fun of
making new colors and adding to our knowledge.

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8. Using Dyed Fiber

When you have accumulated a number of dyed fibers, there are many
interesting uses for them. Many dyers have some knowledge of stitchery, and
those who have not can consult books with clear diagrams of stitches if there is
no opportunity to attend a class. Dyeing has always been closely associated with
weaving, and simple experimental weaving can be done with almost no
equipment, combining wool and cotton with such fibers as raffia and rushes. (To
obtain very thick fiber for bulky stitcheries or for rugs — woven, knotted, or
crocheted — wash old garments in hot water to felt the fiber and prevent
unraveling. Then cut them into strips 2 to | inch wide or into one continuous
strip parallel to the line of the knitting or weave, and use these strips as though
they were single strands.) A number of uses for the small quantities of yarn
obtained from dye experiments are suggested in this chapter. More experienced
dyers will doubtless wish to plan their work beforehand and to dye the quantities
needed.

STITCHERY

By stitchery, I mean not only decorative embroidery but also the joining of
pieces of cloth to make a shaped garment, cover, or container. We can still see in
the costumes of peasant women in the remoter parts of Greece and Yugoslavia
how the seams themselves may be decoratively stitched. With heavy cloth, it is
often preferable to use an embroidery stitch such as herringbone or faggoting
than to “‘sew and fell’’ with the triple thickness of cloth which that entails. The

109
 hem and sleeve edges of dresses made this way are often weighted and stiffened
with many rows of stitchery, which gives a longer life to the garment.Another
practical use of stitchery is to pleat or gather for fullness, and especially to
gather in a way that allows elasticity, as in smocking. This is obviously
invaluable for rapidly growing babies and for active people who need freedom in
using their chest and shoulder muscles.
Stitchery may be used, as in appliqué, to make pictures to give visual
pleasure, and we have many fine examples, all in vegetable dyes of course, from
the middle ages to the Victorian era. Stitchery has been used, instead of pen or
graver, to record, and here writing is often incorporated in the work, as with the
Bayeux Tapestry. It has been used symbolically, as in the aprons and
headdresses of certain Macedonian peasant wives, which have a form of
decoration different from those in the unmarried girls. Throughout the centuries
of the Christian church, stoles and copes have been embroidered with sacred
symbols in traditional positions, and these are an essential part of ritual. This
form of stitchery has had a vigorous revival today; embroiderers — both men
and women — are making rich robes and altar frontals, footstools and cushions
in contemporary styles. This work has traditionally been a labor of devotion for
the Church, but these furnishings also offer a field for the needleworker in the
home today.
A simple and fascinating form of stitchery suitable for filling odd hours and
light to carry about is patchwork. Used blankets or white woven garments in
wool or cotton can be cut up into regular shapes — perhaps four inch squares, or -
six-by-four rectangles —, and two or four or more dropped into any bath where
there is room to spare. They can then be assembled according to some plan or
design and stitched up either simply by machine or by some decorative stitch
such as herringbone or feather stitch. It usually proves necessary to have some
color repeated throughout to hold the design together. A beautiful quilt
was made in separate stuffed squares with their edges turned inwards, and
oversewn. On the other hand, one of my students dyed and sewed together
irregular rectangles in yellow, gold, soft greens and purples to make a cape.
Another dyed small scraps of velvet for a square cushion and embroidered some
of the squares with her dyed wool, achieving a rich effect from waste pieces.
The background material for stitchery — always of importance — is of prime
consideration when vegetable-dyed fibers are used, especially if much of it is to
show. Since many of the colors obtained from common wayside plants are in the
brown and yellow-green ranges, the natural colors of unbleached wool, cotton,
and linen provide a sympathetic background. In fact, for quick effects without
strain on the eyes, sacking or burlap is a suitable background that costs nothing.
Its natural jute color serves well, but jute can also be dyed by some plant dyes,
such as indigo.
Almost all stitchery will be done on woven material, so the weave is an
essential part of the whole. The coarser the weave, the more its structure
obtrudes and must be incorporated in the whole.
The design on the cushion shown on page 118 shows a dyer’s first effort with
an extremely simple design inspired by a flower head and not drawn out
beforehand. The background is walnut-brown burlap (hessian). The yellow

110
wools were dyed with ragwort and tansy flowers, and the tufts of unspun natural
fleece were stitched down. The fringed edge emphasizes the coarseness of the
background material in a natural way, more appropriate here than finishing
with a silk cord or a flounce.
There has been a great upsurge of interest in stitchery during recent years.
Both men and women embroider free hangings, pictures to frame, and
furnishings as well as clothes. Much of this is bold, colorful, and very free in
style, using mixtures of fabrics, a variety of threads, and often incorporating
natural objects such as shells, or pieces of metal. Many people are less inhibited
by the idea of doing a piece of stitchery than making a painting, but they are
doing expressive work similar to the artist’s.
Since the first experiments in dyeing will probably result in short lengths of
fiber, and it is difficult to know how much will be used up by a certain stitch, it is
obviously unwise to start on an elaborate symmetrical design — you may not
have enough of one color to finish it.
For the beginner in stitchery it is a good idea to learn one stitch, perhaps knot-
stitch or featherstitch, to start, and try it in different thicknesses of thread and
different spacings along the lines of the weave, which will serve as guiding lines
and aid in keeping the size of the stitches equal. An interesting sampler can be
made of a collection of vegetable dyes from a particular area or season by using
the different threads in turn in this way. This also gives the opportunity to use up
very short lengths from dye experiments. Later, the other possibilities of one
stitch can be explored by seeing how it turns round corners, how it holds down a
loose edge, or what is the effect of placing bands of it together in a solid mass.
One eight-year-old child in my classes made a sampler of stitches in different
greens obtained from nettle on different fibers: cotton, tapes, ribbon, wool, and
silk thread. A sampler need not be a laborious piece of work but may consist of
short lengths—just enough to confirm that a stitch has been practiced
sufficiently to become part of one’s vocabulary.
Because cloth consists of threads woven at right angles, the beginner can give
his work regularity by working in lines or squares or rectangles. Working with
the weave also gives structure to the design without any intellectual “designing.”
But it is also fun to play with the structure of the cloth, to pull out threads, to
vary the spacing, and perhaps to tie the parallel threads left in the space into
some new arrangements. You can also make new combinations of color by
pulling a dyed thread in — a good technique for heavy or nubbly dyed threads
that cannot be put into the eye of a needle. First, pull out a number of warp
threads (because these are bound to be strong enough to support the tug of the
“pull through,” whereas the weft may not be). Then, when there is enough room
to maneuver, knot the new thread to one thread at the side of the gap and pull this
thread through until the new thread lies in the position of the threads removed.
If you want a bolder effect of the new color, remove the next warp threads —
which follows a different path over and under — and lay a second thread of the
new color next to the first. You can repeat this to get a band of any width. The
effect need not be used over the total length of the cloth but can be limited to a
shape within the whole if you simply cut the warp carefully between the weft
threads: use a razor blade on cutting surface such as a kitchen chopping board.

111
 Another variation is to cut the warp threads on one end only, hook them up a
few inches back still attached at the other end, and leave them waving free like a
fringe or stitch them down in another place, which adds to the textural quality.
Here stitchery approaches closely some forms of contemporary weaving.
As I have suggested, the background material — unless it is canvas intended
to be covered completely and even then the spacing determines the texture — is
an important element in the final effect. But only a purist would suggest that its
structure must always feature obviously. Some finely woven textiles serve
admirably as background because oftheir plainness; with others that are already
patterned, like Byzantine damasks, embroidery adds to the richness of the
whole.
A tufted picture designed round the onion and other plants that provided the
dyes is shown on page 119. It was completed during one weekend by a student
fired with the excitement of seeing her own first dye colors emerge. In it several
amounts of wool she had available — along with undyed wool — were cleverly
used to show variety in the skin of the onion and the leaves. The curving edge
echoes and complements the shapes within the picture, and shows the old-gold
background of common burlap (hessian). This piece was thought of as a picture,
but a similar work of soft tufted wool would make a comfortable cushion.
While the study of the leaf forms, calyxes, and fruits of plants themselves will
provide many suggestions for designs and offer further outlets for expressing our
interest in them, any subject is of course acceptable. But there is no need at all to
design stitchery beforehand. Many fine contemporary embroideries have grown
and taken form as they were made, and this approach is perhaps most fun of all.
Simply start anywhere on the background — preferably near, but not dead-on,
center — with one of the stronger colors, and stitch a shape, which need not
represent anything but just an interesting shape! Then, changing the color and
perhaps the thickness of the wool, add to that shape on one or several sides,
building outwards from it in solid masses or in tenuous lines of stitchery, which
can then be elaborated. They can spread asymmetrically to the edge, or new
lines can be brought in from edge or corner to approach or perhaps mingle with
them. Another way to begin a “‘free’”’ embroidery is to use some pieces of dyed
fabric — perhaps the background fabric dyed a different color or one that
relates to it — cut and appliquéd on to provide the first solid patches of color.
This gets a quicker effect and has an additional advantage: you can move the
patches about before stitching them down to see where they look best in relation
to the total shape. They can be of the same or different sizes, scattered or
clustered, and their edges might be frayed and stitched down with small or
decorative stitches between each thread. Since working with the nature of the
material is one of the marks of the true craftsman, this underlining of the
function of warp and weft can give great interest to such a stitchery.
Free embroidery has little formal design to hold it together, so it can lack
unity unless the number of stitches is limited or the colors are repeated to some
extent in different parts of the whole. Many vegetable-dye colors are apt to be
very soft, and if too many of these “‘close-ranged”’ colors are used side by side,
the effect will be misty and unclear, perhaps even confused. So it is wise to make
clear steps from one shade to another and to have a dominant color or group of

412
colors on which the eye can fasten, letting the others serve to enhance these. I
know of no embroiderers working solely or mainly in plant-dyed colors in the
western countries, so the time is ripe for those who wish to open up a new field.

WEAVING

Boundaries between many of the traditional crafts have almost been

dissolved, and when we pull out threads of a material and weave in others with
fingers or needle we are moving from stitchery into another craft, which gains its
strength to survive by its own discipline and by the explorations of its highly
skilled practitioners. But as an introduction to weaving, the beginner can use a
cardboard loom, a simple frame of four pieces of wood screwed together, or an
old picture frame. The spacing of the warp threads is controlled by knocking in
tacks or nails at the required intervals on the two shorter bars. Start the warp at

Display of work inspired by American Indian weaving, pottery, and jewelry. At upper left is an Indian
bow loom; at the right is a double bow loom. The fibers for the weaving and leather thongs for the
jewelry were all dyed with plant dyes.

113
 one end tack, and wind round the front and back of the frame, which gives you
double the length of fabric you would have simply working on the front face. For
a wall hanging you can hang the warp from a piece of natural wood and leave
this in at the end. Or you can fasten one end of a long warp to a bar with a hook
that can be slipped round a heavy chair or a tree branch and the other end to a
bar fastened to your waistband, so that tension is created when you lean back.
There are a number of excellent contemporary books on weaving (see the
Bibliography), so I propose only to mention some points of special interest to
the dyer.
Since the experimental dyer will probably be working mainly with wool, it
should be noted that this fiber has bulk, softness, and an infinite range ofcolors,
but its strength is not great, especially if it is a beginner’s handspinning. So I
strongly recommend setting up your first warp in cotton, linen, or a man-made
fiber that has strength and just enough elasticity to make the shed — the path for
the weft to go through. It is important to have firm selvedges, so use two or three
threads in the place of one, or a heavier thread at the outside edges.
There is no reason why you should not from the beginning use threads of
different thicknesses in the warp as well as in the weft. Small pieces of fancy-
spun or unspun tufts can also be woven in with the weft. And once the beginning
strip — about | or |'4 inches wide — is firmly in place, there is no reason why
the weft should go all the way across. Interesting weavings can be built up (if
they have not to stand up to hard usage) by weaving blocks and spaces, perhaps
tieing the warp threads afterward in bunches.
There has been a tremendous explosion in the concept of weaving. We are
surrounded by weaving as sculpture, three-dimensional and circular weaving,
fascinating pouches and tubes that turn themselves inside out, garments woven
in one piece, and so on, and these must make any new weaver feel that the field is
very wide.
Dyers will naturally want to express their interest and pleasure in plants by
incorporating some of them where appropriate in their weaving as well as in
their stitchery. Birch bark can be fitted in the spaces between blocks of weft, and
will curl round in an attractive fashion. Twigs and sprays with acorns, teasles, or
tree fruits may be used in hangings, especially when they echo the dye materials
used. Grasses create a beautiful texture, and their subtle colors often go well
with soft dyed colors — a rush mat woven on a cotton warp dyed with rushes
embodies the plant more fully than simply one or the other. Powdery or feathery
heads like bullrushes (cattails) can be prevented from disintegrating by a thin
coat of varnish. But I would plead against unusual additions simply for the sake
of novelty or striking effect. The subtlety of plants demands sensitiveness in the
worker. Also, while every weaving certainly does not need to have a practical
purpose, directionless experiments (which clutter up the house flattered by the
name of “wall hangings ”’) are just as pointless as the old rigid repetition.
Experiments should be pieces from which we learn skills that can be incor-
porated in further, finer works. For instance, if one takes the trouble to learn the
technique of gauze-weaving, which fastens down each weft throw, it is
reasonable to vary the very open effects with all kinds of interesting objects —
flower heads, leaf skeletons, even shells — as well as ceramic or metal pieces.

114
 os
x S = bo= So aS v 3S} S S cS Q & 2
=~
> = 8 S aS o S 4 is) yy
woven on a frame loom.

115
 KNITTING AND CROCHET

The age-old crafts of knitting and crochet are of course the traditional
techniques that relied on plant dyeing. Mittens of“sprang” (a technique similar
to knitting) from the Bronze Age have been found in Danish bogs. The brightly
colored knitted Scottish Fair Isle patterns use natural fleece along with dyes
from seaweed and lichens, and have persisted for centuries. (The original
abstract patterns, different from the Scandinavian representations of trees and
animals so often found in Celtic art, may be Islamic patterns taught to the
islanders by survivors of a Spanish galleon wrecked there as it fled from the
Armada debacle.) Much of my own vegetable-dyed wool is made up in this
form, not only because knitting is convenient to carry about, but also because I
use up small scraps or skeins in such patterns.
The main thing to remember in knitting is that since wool threads spread a
little and create misty rather than hard edges, it is necessary to use clearly
defined colors, and the background and pattern should be different in tone
—light colors on natural “‘black”’ sheep, or bright colors on white — otherwise,
the effect will be fuzzy.
Crochet need not be the fine work done by our grandmothers for table linen or
edging baby clothes. Crochet is very fashionable among young people, not only
for clothing but also for three-dimensional pieces. You can use the results of dye
experiments to make small single squares that can be sewn or crocheted
together: it is also convenient if you always like to have a piece of handwork in -
one pocket for bus queues and airport waits. You can crochet with heavy wool
made from twisting two or three threads together — if apparatus to ply
professionally is not available — or with strips cut from old garments. I went to
meet a woman who, I had heard, was teaching schoolchildren in Essex how to
use woad (Essex used to have a considerable woad industry, so they were
rediscovering their own history), and I found this delightful farmer’s wife and a
friend wearing their own dyed and woven tweed skirts and furnishing their
houses with their own rugs. I remember in particular one circular floor rug
crocheted in all the colors from dahlias, from dusky pink through orange to
fawn and yellow.

KNOTTING AND PLAITING

The dyer’s wool or cotton can also be used in some form of knotting, plaiting,
tatting, or needle-weaving: these techniques make interesting forms that stand
on their own or that can be used to hold objects such as fishermen’s glass floats
or even marbles by suspending them in a net. Uneven shapes can be held by
cradling, a jewelry term for holding uncut semiprecious stones by bending wire
around them. Acorns, decorative bean shapes, nuts, as well as shells, pebbles,
and beads, may be incorporated.
Dyed fibers may also be made up in macramé. Macramé has been elaborated
from old sailors’ knots, and is now used to make a wide variety of functional and
decorative forms, including large room dividers, window and door screens, as
well as bags (either alone or combined with leatherwork). It is very suitable for
116
 Crochet hanging, wool-bag, and scarf in
natural and plant-dyed wools by students
of the author.

_-
aS

this, being strong, light, and airy. My students have dyed macramé twine and
cord with indigo when we had a vat set up, and with madder, walnut, and onion
skins. Knotting and macramé can also be used to finish the warp ends of rugs,
cushions, and hangings. In his book, The Techniques of Weaving, Peter
Collingwood shows 29 different ways of finishing a fringe!
117
13
Patchwork cloak in wool cloth dyed with
summer plants of Pennsylvania, by a student
of the author.

14
Patchwork quilt made from over 500 separate
patches dyed with only four plants: raspberry,
sumac, indigo, and turmeric. The variety of
shades was obtained by the use of four
different mordants. iron, alum, chrome, and
tin, and by overdyveing. By a student of the
author.

15
Cushion with embroidery on the theme ofthe
umbel. By a student of the author.

16
Open weave dyed wool and string hanging by a
student of the author.

Va
Woven hanging incorporating plants, bva
student of the author.

18
Tufted cushion with onion motif. The wool
was dyed with onion. By a student of the
author.

19
Punchwork (continuous thread stitchery) on
burlap by a student of the author. The fibers
were dyed with goldenrod, blackeved susan,
blueberry, and sumac.
 6) ee weeee

ed
=34y

18 19
 TIE-DYEING

The process of tie-dyeing, which is so useful for achieving quick and striking
effects in banners, clothes, and furnishings, will be described only briefly here
since there are excellent books on the subject. Tie-dyeing is usually done “in the
piece,” so the dyer is more likely to be working with cotton or silk than with
woolen fabrics. Any of the appropriate plant dyes can be used, but much of the
effect is lost if the dye is pale or indeterminate. So it is probably better to begin
with one of the strong dyes — walnut, black oak, yellow flag iris roots, weld
with iron mordant, or indigo, a longstanding favorite with the Nigerians, who
still extensively practice tie-dyeing with indigo.
The simple theory is that if the dye is prevented from getting to certain parts of
the cloth, these will remain white or the natural color, while the exposed parts
will be colored and the parts between will show the fascinating path of the dye
streaking along the fibers. This is the principle used in batik, where the areas not
to be dyed are blocked out by pouring or brushing liquid wax over them.
However, since almost all plant dyes require heating to near boiling point to be
absorbed into the fiber, the wax would melt and expose the parts intended to be
blocked out. Batik is used with the cool indigo vat, though, and dyers may want
to experiment with it. In tie-dye, the areas not to be dyed are blocked out by
binding the rolled or pleated cloth (or skeins of fiber) with string or by gathering
it with a needle and strong thread so firmly that the dye cannot penetrate. Tieing
and oversewing along the pleats can also be combined, as shown in the
illustrations. It is necessary to pull up the string or thread very tightly, and to
secure the ends firmly so the ties do not work loose.
The string or thread used must be very strong, and should have a waxy surface
so the string itself will not absorb the dye and carry it into the covered parts.
Since one does not always know how absorbent a string is, I usually begin

a A handkerchief or piece of old cloth folded

and ready for tieing.
b The handkerchief tied up with thread or thin
string and thick twine wound around, and with
thread wound spirally. All the ends are tied
tightly and securely.

120
students with dyeing a piece of pleated cloth tied with all the threads, strings,
and twines we can muster. As we untie, we can see which have best blocked the
dye. Absorbent string can be painted over with flour and water paste, which
cooks in the heat instead of melting as wax would. For this, blend | tablespoon
flour or other thickening agent such as corn flour or cornstarch with a little
water to a smooth paste, add to a cup of boiling water and cook 5 minutes.
Probably the easiest way to get the idea of tie-dyeing is to tie up three small
experiments, for which you can use scraps of cotton cloth or cheap white
handkerchiefs. Old cotton is very good for these experiments. As always before
dyeing cotton, if it is new, it must be thoroughly washed.
a A handkerchief picked up by the exact
1) In the center of one square, very accurately, put a smooth stone, a button, center ready for tieing.
or a marble, and tie securely round. Put different shapes and sizes in each of the b The handkerchief with a bead or stone tied
four corners and tie in the same way. into it.
¢ The handkerchief
with a thread wound
2) Fold the second square into even pleats | inch or less wide — ironing them
spirally. The thread is ready to be wound
in makes this easier — and tie at intervals down the length, trying one wide tie, spirally back to the other end where it is tied
two ties close together, a group of close ties with thick thread. securely.

121
 3) Lay the third square flat and made guide lines across it with a ruler and
pencil or by pulling out single threads at intervals. Then with even stitches sew
one row straight, one row zigzag, one row in waves. Into the unstitched portion
of the cloth you can tie rice grains or barley, spacing evenly to get a spotted
effect.
Now boil these samples in any of the strong plant dyes for cotton, such as
walnut, or dip them in indigo as described in Chapter 4. Dry them thoroughly
before opening the ties.
I shall not give an illustration of the squares untied, but leave beginners the
excitement of opening them. From this basic repertory of effects, many different
combinations can be planned. Because the dye itself flows a little unevenly, it is
necessary to build on a very regular simple foundation, yet each row or tie still
a A sample piece of cloth stitched up and will turn out a little different.
ready to be gathered, the thread knotted It has to be remembered that the outer parts of a length of pleated and tied
securely with a backstitch.
b The same piece of cloth after gathering and cloth will absorb more dye than the interior area, but with skill this fact can be
fastening. used to get even greater variety over the whole piece.

4 /NINININ\IININININININ

to
Pit ARGS.

122
Sequence illustrating the tie-dyeing of a bedspread. The first picture shows the fabric
after it has been tied, stitched, and dyed with indigo; the second picture shows the
first stage of unwrapping. The third picture shows the next stage of unwrapping: the
design is getting lighter where the dye has not penetrated. In the last picture, the
complete bedspread is shown, together with student wearing an indigo-tie-dyed shirt.

123
 Into the same dye-pot, for further experimentation, can go hanks of wool and
cotton tied along their length in the same way, either at regular intervals or in
groups of two ties, then a broader band, or whatever combination you plan.
When the skeins are untied, they will have a striped effect that can be used
imaginatively in weaving or embroidery, or to produce the patchy effect that
seems to be a recurring fashion in knitting.
When you have grasped the principles of tie-dyeing, you can make use of top-
dyeing to get a gradation of colors. Thoroughly dry the tied cloth or skeins after
their first dyeing. Then you can untie some strings, which means that the
original white will take the second color, and make some new ties, which means
that here the first color dyed will remain, being blocked from the second color.
The rest will take the new color, which will be a combination of the two dyes. It
is not nearly so complicated as it sounds. Try it and see!

WARP-DYEING

One traditional way of using tie-dye in the East is warp-dyeing. This

produces, because of the slight flooding of the color and the softening effect of
the weft mixing with the warp color, a delicate misty pattern.
Beginners who have learned to manipulate the frame loom described earlier
will see that by stretching the correct length of warp on two sticks beforehand
and securing the ends, they can block out certain parts of this total skein and
reassemble it on the loom after dyeing. ;
Experienced weavers, can prepare the warp for the final length of cloth, with
every thread in the position it will finally occupy. This warp is then tied into
diamond spots or some other very simple pattern and immersed in a dyebath —
which needs in this case to be quite large. After dyeing, the warp is then put on
the loom with great care to keep it in position, and the weft is woven in. This is
usually in the same color, so that where it crosses the undyed areas, the pattern
appears in a lighter shade, with hazy edges. This is a skilled craft, for devotees.
New colors are also produced, of course, by the crossing of two sets of colored
threads in the warp and the weft. When we remember that the ancient Scottish
tartans with their bright orange-reds, plum-purples, yellows, and soft greens
were practically all dyed with plants, we can see what infinite variety can be
created even in the simplest type of weaving. There is a particular luminosity
about the colors created by crossing two contrasting shades: they vibrate in front
of our eyes.

Dyers will doubtless use their fibers in other fascinating ways too. The colors
Threads tied to make a tie-dyed warp, and the of vegetable dyes are on the whole so subtle and varied that if one uses them and
yarn after it has been dyed and untied. gives time and thought to combining them, one develops a subtle color sense that
enormously extends the range of colors in a world splashed with crude
advertisements and blazing with luminous garments.

124
9. Planting a Dye Garden

The serious dyer may well want to go on to plant a garden of dye plants.
Naturally it is hardly worth sowing those that grow wild nearby and are easily
gathered or that seldom grow in sufficient quantities to gather for dyeing. The
garden can be planned with narrow paths or steppingstones for easy gathering in
any weather. Even without a garden, one can grow potted geraniums and other
plants such as marigolds, dahlias, and rudbeckia on a sunny windowsill or
balcony, or lily of the valley, ivy, dwarf berberis, or bloodroot on a shady one.
According to the soil and aspect of the ground, it seems best to begin with the
plants that grow easily in such conditions and then go on to preparing special
plots of differing soils for rarer types. In my own garden in the county of Kent
in the south of England, which gets fairly warm summers but quite cold winters,
I grow many of the plants discussed in this chapter, and some of them, such as
lily of the valley and scarlet geraniums (Pelargonium species) give the delight of
flowers before I use parts of them for dyes.
In normal loamy soils, an annual that can be planted for immediate use the
same year is calliopsis, which produces masses of yellow, crimson, and maroon
flowers that give a burnt-orange dye. There are numerous varieties of marigold
(Tagetes) that yield a dye from the flower heads. Another annual, hardy with
us, and a weed that grows in waste places in the United States, soapwort
(Saponaria officinalis) gives a dye, though not a very firm one. The scent
of the soapwort in the evening is a joy, and it attracts the hawk moths that
pollinate it. But soapwort and queen of the meadow with its feathery heads both
tend to spread and take over the whole bed, so I suggest edging some small plots
with brick or stone to keep these within bounds.
Rudbeckia or coneflower, the brown-eyed Susan, grows wild in the United
States but is usually grown in its garden varieties in England. It gives a good

125
 yellow dye that varies from gold to green according to which part is used and
how it is mordanted. With us, it is best sown in autumn for next summer’s
flowering. The yellow camomile gives a yellow dye. The creeping variety with no
flowers will form a green mat in two years; the Elizabethans used it for lawns,
which gave a scent when trodden on.
With calliopsis, saponaria, marigold, rudbeckia, and camomile, it is the
flower heads that are used, and the gardener is naturally reluctant to pick the
large amounts needed, but all these are free-flowering in most districts. Other
perennials that grow wild but are pleasant enough to merit garden room are St.-
John’s-wort, tansy, and goldenrod. The only European species of this last is
Solidago virgaurea, a rampant yellow plume often seen in cottage gardens.
America has dozens of common goldenrods, several of which at least give dyes.
Behind the lower plants can stand the brooms, whose tips have to be cut back
after flowering anyway, so you can prune them to use while some are still in
flower. Of the same family but giving a firmer dye is dyer’s greenwood, which
grows well in my shrubbery, being tall enough to catch the sun. In the shrubbery
too are the autumn-flaming barberry — I place them well away from paths
because of their prickles, but their roots and lower stems yield a good yellow
dye. The barberry’s reddish berries also provide winter interest, but it is a plant
that sucks the ground dry, so plants that need some moisture should not be
grown under it.
When my pyracantha bush was knocked down by a falling tree, I tested it and
found that the bark yielded a subtle pinkish sand color with chrome. :
There are several kinds of privet dye — the view of my neighbor’s rubbish
dump is blocked out by privet bushes, a useful evergreen yielding a golden dye,
but I also grow the yellow-leaved aurea variety, which catches any glimpse of the
winter sun and gives a fine sharp acid-yellow dye.
The best of the yellow dye plants of the temperate zones is weld, long
cultivated commercially for its dye properties in both Europe and the United
States. It still grows wild on the chalk downs of southern England, but it seeds
itself freely and has to be checked in the garden. It is not very decorative, but its
tall spikes are quite handsome.
Yellow can be obtained from many sources, but the salmon-pink to orange-
red that we get from pokeberry, though not completely permanent by any
method I know, is rare. I have not seen pokeberry growing wild in Britain and a
friend who grows it in east Scotland says it suffers from the winters, though it is
a common weed in the eastern United States. It was widely used by the early
American settlers as a dye, so they may have known some method of making it
more permanent.
Mahonia, or Oregon grape, grown decoratively in parks and home gardens in
the United States, and in my garden gives a dye from both roots and berries.
Among the few plants that can be grown easily for red is the true dyer’s
madder, which does not flower until the second or third year but seeds itself
around freely, so we need not hesitate to dig up the roots for drying. The French,
who were skilled growers before the madder fields of Holland took precedence
over them, believed that the parent plant gave the best dye, so the shoots were
planted out and left to be taken up some years later. I have found a species of

126
the madder family that gives a pink dye growing wild in the woods of
Pennsylvania. Red can also be obtained from bloodroot, native to the United
States, but possible to naturalize in Britain. I have it indoors in a pot to enjoy
the frail flowers in February, then put it out to spread its red roots during
summer. It is hardy in the northern United States; it spreads nicely in half-shady
spots which get early sun.
Common wild dye plants, which like well-drained soil and so will often grow
in rather stony ground, are the delicate lady’s bedstraw (a lesser relation of the
true madder) and tall, coarse ragwort. Both ragwort and tansy, with its
decorative golden buttons and heavy scent, need sun, and so does the gorse,
which flourishes on sandy ground, especially near the sea, but is worth growing
only if there is enough space to isolate the prickly stuff. The sight of its
occasional yellow flower tips braving the winter is a humorous reminder of the
old saying, ““When gorse is out of bloom, kissing is out of fashion.” Also on poor
ground tending towards the sandy will be found saffron crocus. The dye is
concentrated in its stigma, but it is more often used in the form of an extract. I
have found the colorful spikes of Indian paintbrush (Castilleja genus) growing as
far north as the Canadian border of the United States, and it is named as an
Indian dye, but I had no opportunity to test it. Those who live in sandy districts
with hot summers can grow many Indian dye-plants*, including such well-
documented ones as the lambs’ quarters (Chenopodium album), used by the
Ojibwa for a green dye, rabbit brush (Chrysothamnus species), and osage-
orange (Maclura pomifera), which | am told is hardy in the northeastern part of
the United States but I have not tried it. It is a spiny tree that grows to sixty feet
but can be kept trimmed and used as a hedge, but it is not very decorative. Alice
Parrit grows her own dyes in New Mexico with unique results.
Few of us would want to encourage bracken, dock or nettles in the garden, but
if they have to be pulled up, at least there is some consolation in knowing that
they all make a greenish dye. I wish I could say as much for dandelion roots,
which are often said to make the magenta of the Scottish kilts, but I have failed
to find any way of obtaining this, nor have I met anyone who knows how.
Many gardeners sow vegetables, and if there is a superfluity, spinach and
onions are standbys for dyes. Beetroot is disappointing.
Some dyes we get from fruits that may be cultivated for the kitchen —
blueberry, huckleberry, mulberry, and blackberry — but I can gather plenty of
wild blackberries (or brambles, as they are called in Scotland), that invade the
garden. The small wild creeping blackberry of the American West Coast, which
makes delicious jam, also gives a good dye from purple to blue. But of course the
traditional source of blue is woad, the oldest plant dye known and easy to grow
in temperate-climate gardens. In England it is found as an escape from the old
woad fields that fell into disuse with the growth of the indigo trade. It grows in
poor soil and reaches three feet in height, but its spinach-like plants are hardly
decorative and in my garden are relegated to a corner.

*The Denver Museum, Denver, Colorado, publishes two pamphlets on Indian dyes.

127
 There is another group of plants, the heathers, that will grow over a wide area
of the land surface if the soil is acid, and this can be provided even in a limestone
district like my own by making pockets of peaty soil. I have used the squares
between flagstones and old earthenware sinks, forming the sides of steps up and
down — so giving a delightful variation of levels — to make such special sites
for heathers. These too give color to the autumn and winter garden as well as
providing clippings for dye. The carnea heathers will tolerate lime, but I have
not found winter clippings from them to yield such a good yellow as the peat
heathers.
Those who have a stream or pool are fortunate, for they can grow water-
loving plants in natural surroundings. In the lowest corner of the garden, to
which the rest drains, you can have a sunk wall or a concrete-lined ditch to trap
the water for moisture-loving plants. In my own case I find that the corner with
the water butt, which is often overflowing, is always damp and serves well. The
water-buttercup or marsh-marigold (Caltha palustris, not to be confused with
the American garden marigold), which is an early spring plant with bright
yellow sun-catching sepals that look like petals, grows wild in water meadows
and can be cultivated.
Yet another group that can be specially catered for if one’s ground is naturally
boggy (and few of us try to make a garden in boggy ground) include bog myrtle
and bog asphodel, both found wild over miles of Scotland, Ireland, and also the
United States, where it is very rare and should not be wantonly collected by
dyers. ;
Another plant that will enhance a boggy patch is the yellow flag iris, with its
beautiful flowers. (I have not found that the garden iris, of which I have a great
variety, gives a real dye.) The strong black dye is in the rhizome, so it has to be
dug up, but these irises are all the better for being divided, and some can be
replanted while other pieces are used for dye.
The best of the dye trees are too slow growing for most of us to plant and
expect to use in our lifetime. The black walnut, which gives such a strong, lasting
dye, will not bear for our generation, and we are fortunate that our forefathers
liked the nuts pickled and bequeathed old trees to us.
One fast-growing tree, which I planted to obscure an ugly telephone pole
across the road, is the Lombardy poplar. Tall enough to be lopped after four
years, it is not a tree to plant near buildings because its roots undermine
foundations and crack drains in their search for water.
Other trees that grow fast are the cherries, both the fruiting and the
autumnalis, which opens its pale pink flowers all winter, even in the snow, and is
invaluable for bringing in bud into the house. I have to bark-prune my too swift-
growing cherries, and this is an admirable time to get some of the inner bark.
Otherwise I watch for tree-felling in the district. Birches are decorative all year
and fast growing, but these too need to be far from buildings, for their roots
also tend to undermine foundations. The bark of apple and pear trees grown for
fruit gives a yellow-brown dye, but one can obtain these colors elsewhere and I
would not risk the trees by taking much bark from them. The bark can be
obtained from newly felled trees or from lopped branches.

128
 I do not grow the weirdly shaped sumac, a native of North America,because it
needs its own space to show it off, but I enjoy my neighbors’ and beg berries and
young shoots for their dye.
There is one tree that grows vigorously over a large part of the temperate
world, seeds itself, is not fussy as to soil, and grows so quickly that one can have
the flowers for wine-making and the berries for preserves or dye within four
years or so: this is the European elder. I have a large one at my gate and I
encourage its self-sown seedlings round the edges of the garden because it scents
the yard with its June blossoming and delights the eye from the green spear-buds
until the leaves turn yellow and purple in autumn. Its bare winter branches do
not block the sun, and its health-giving properties caused an eighteenth-century
doctor to get off his horse and bow each time he saw one. It is well known to
children wherever it grows because its hollow stems are admirable for pea-
shooters, pop guns, and musical pipes. Several of the tree’s names reflect this;
the Latin name, sambucus, is linked to the Greek sambuke, a musical pipe and
the Scottish name is bore-tree.
Even a small garden can have a part set aside for the basic dye plants, or the
whole garden can gradually develop through judicious choice of decorative
shrubs into a dye garden. We all of us gather round ourselves the things which
are meaningful to us. I work more gladly at routine tasks in the garden because I
know that when the foliage has withered, the dyestuffs will be a permanent part
of the household. This double association of giving and taking extends our
relationship with the plants that share our global environment and multiplies
meaning in our life.

129
 List of Suppliers

Suppliers of natural dye materials and chemicals necessary for dyeing are listed below by country.
Most drug stores or pharmacies supply basic mordants, and household stores or supermarkets
supply the common chemicals ‘Such as vinegar, lye, etc. Less common chemicals can be obtained in
chemical supply houses for school laboratory materials, which are found in most large cities.

UNITED STATES CANADA

Brand-Nu Laboratories Inc. Allied Chemical Co. Canada Ltd.
Post Office Box No. 178 1155 Dorchester Blvd. West
Meriden, Connecticut 06450 Montreal 2 Quebec
and also
National Biological Supply Co. 1280 Archibald St., St. Boniface, Manitoba
2325 Michigan Ave. 100 N. Queen St., Toronto 14, Ontario
Chicago, Illinois 60616 14505 Edmonton L.D.C. 3, Alberta
Barnet, British Columbia
Nature’s Herb Co. Port Moody 431, British Columbia
281 Ellis St. 2695 Granville Street, Vancouver, British Col-
San Francisco, California 94012 umbia

Spectu-Chem Inc. Fisher Scientific Co. Ltd.

1354 Ellison P.O. Box 3840, Station D, 14730—115A Ave.
Louisville, Kentucky 40201 Edmonton, Alberta ;
and also
184 Railside Rd., Don Mills, Ontario
P.O. Box 1020, 8505 Devonshire Rd., Mon-
treal, Quebec
P.O. Box 2149, 196 West Third Ave., Van-
couver 3, British Columbia

World Wide Herbs Ltd.

11 Catherine St. E.
Montreal 129, Quebec

130
BRITAIN AUSTRALIA
Matheson’s Dyes and Chemicals C.F. Bailey
Marcon Place St. Aubyn 15 Dutton St.
Hackney Bankstown, New South Wales 220
London E8

Skilbeck Bros. NEW ZEALAND

55 Glengall St.
London SE 15 C:C.G. Industries Ltd.
33 Crowhurst Rd., P.O. Box 3726
Youngs New Market, Aukland
40 Belvoir and also
Leicester LEI6QE 411 High St., P.O. Box 3018
Lower Hutt

131
 Bibliography

Asterisks denote books of special importance.

BOOKS ON DYEING

Adrosko, Rita J, Natural Dyes and Home Dyeing. New York: Dover, 1971. Formerly titled:
Natural Dyes in the United States.
Balls, Edward K. Early Uses of California Plants. (California Natural History Guides: No. 10).
Berkeley: University of California Press, 1962.
Bird, C.L. The Theory and Practice of Wool Dyeing. Bradford, Yorkshire: Society of Dyers and
Colourists, 1963.
Bolton, Eileen. Lichens for Vegetable Dyeing. Newton Centre, Mass.: Charles T. Branford Co.,
1960 and London: Studio Books, 1960.
Bryan, Nonabeh G. Navajo Native Dyes; Their Preparation and Use (Indian Handcrafts No. 2).
Chilocco, 1940.

Creekmore, Betsey B. Traditional American Crafts. New York: Hearthside Press, 1968.

*Davenport, Elsie C. Your Yarn Dyeing; A Book for Handweavers and Spinners. London: Sylvan
Press, 1955.

Davidson, Mary Francis. The Dyepot. Gatlinburg, Tenn. 1967.

Duncan, Molly. Spin Your Own Wool and Dye It and Weave It. Wellington, New Zealand: A.H. &
A.W. Reed, 1968.
Eaton, Allen H. Handicrafts of the Southern Highlands. New York: Russell Sage, 1937.
Ellis, Asa. The Country Dyer’s Assistant. Brookfield, Mass.: E. Merriam & Co., 1798. First book
on dyeing published in the United States.
Hurry, J.B. The Woad Plant. London: Oxford University Press, 1930.
Kierstead, Sallie P. Natural Dyes. Boston: Bruce Humphries, 1950.

Leechman, John Douglas. Vegetable Dyes from North American Plants. New Y ork: Hill and Wang
(Webb), 1945.

132
Lesch, Alma. Vegetable Dyeing: One Hundred and Fifty-One Recipes for Dyeing Yarns and Fab-
rics with Natural Materials. New York: Watson-Guptill, 1970.
Lloyd, Joyce. Dyes From Plants of Australia and New Zealand. Wellington, New Zealand: A.H. &
A.W. Reed, 1968.
Mackenzie. Five Thousand Recipes. Pittsburgh: Kay & Troutman, 1846.
Mairet, Ethel M. Vegetable Dyes, Sth Ed. Boston: Humphries, 1931 and London: Faber, 1952.
Parslow, V.D. Weaving and Dyeing Processes in Early New York. Cooperstown, N.Y.: Farmer’s
Museum, 1949.

Pope, F. Whipple. Processes in Dyeing with Vegetable Dyes and Other Means. Boston: North Ben-
nett Street Industrial School, 1960.
Robinson, Stuart and Patricia Robinson. Exploring Fabric Printing. Newton Centre, Mass.:
Charles T. Branford, 1970.

*Thurston, V. The Use of Vegetable Dyes. Leicester, England: Dryad Press, 1968.
Tidball, Harriet. Color and Dyeing. Pacific Grove, Cal.: Craft & Hobby, 1971.

BOOKS ON TEXTILE CRAFTS

Amsden, Charles. Navaho Weaving, Its Technic and History. Glorieta, N.M.: Rio Grande, 1964.
Ash, Beryl and Anthony Dyson. Introducing Dyeing and Printing. New York: Watson-Guptill,
1970.
Beutlich, Tadek. Technique of Woven Tapestry. New York: Watson-Guptill, 1971 and London: Batsford, 1971.
Butler, Anne. Embroidery
for School Children. Newton Centre, Mass.: Charles T. Branford, 1970 and London: Studio Books, 1971.

Collingwood, Peter. Techniques of Rug Weaving. New York: Watson-Guptill, 1969 and London: Batsford, 1968.
Enthoven, Jacqueline. Stitchery
for Children. New York: Van Nostrand Reinhold, 1968.
Hein, Gisela. Fabric Printing by Hand: Beginning Techniques. New York and London: Van Nostrand Reinhold,
19A2:
Hartnung, Rolf. Creative Textile Design. New York: Van Nostrand Reinhold, 1964 and London: Batsford, 1964.
—.. More Creative Textile Design. New York: Van Nostrand Reinhold, 1965 and London: Batsford, 1965.
Harvey, Virginia. Macramé. New York: Van Nostrand Reinhold, 1967.

Karasz, Mariska. Adventures in Stitches. New York: Funk & Wagnalls, 1959.
Krevitsky, Norman. Batik: Art and Craft. New York: Van Nostrand Reinhold, 1964.
*____ Stitchery: Art and Craft. New York: Van Nostrand Reinhold, 1966.
Liley, Alison. Embroidery, A Fresh Approach. London: Mills & Boon.
*Maile, Anna. Tie-and-Dye as a Present Day Craft. New York: Ballantine Books, 1971 and London: Mills and Boon, 1963.
McNeill, M. Pulled Thread. London: Mills & Boon.

Parker, C. Inspiration
for Embroidery. London, Batsford.
Proud, Nora. /ntroducing Textile Printing. New York: Watson-Guptill, 1968 and London: Batsford, 1968.

*Rainey, Sarita. Weaving Without a Loom. Worcester, Mass.: Davis, 1968.

Seyd, M. Designing with String. Plainfield, N.J.: Textile Book, 1969 and London, 1969.
Snook, Barbara. Needlework Stitches. New York: Crown, 1972 and London: Batsford, 1972.

Springall, Diana. Canvas Embroidery. Newton Centre, Mass.: Charles T. Branford, 1969 and London: Batsford, 1969.
Stratford, M. Introducing Knitting. London: Batsford, 1921.

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 Thomas, Mary. Mary Thomas's Book of Knitting Patterns. New Y ork: Dover, 1972.
Tovey, John. Weaves and Pattern Drafting. New York: Van Nostrand Reinhold, 1969.
Van Dommelen, David. Decorative Wall Hangings. New York: Funk & Wagnalls.

HISTORICAL BOOKS ON PLANTS

Arber, A. Herbals, Their Origin and Evolution. New York: Hafner, 1970.
Culpeper, Nicholas. Culpeper’s Complete Herbal. New York: Sterling, 1959. Culpeper
(1616—1654) was a London physician and astrologer whose many books were enormously popular
although they were attacked by the established College of Physicians.
Durat, C. Histoire des Plantes. Paris, 1605.

Grieve, M. A Modern Herbal. New York: Dover, 1967.

Gesner, Konrad von. Opera Botanica. London, 1751. Gesner (1516—1565) was a learned German-
Swiss writer and naturalist, who illustrated his own works. Although he was best known to his con-
temporaries as a botanist, his botanical works were not published until the eighteenth century.
Hatton, Richard G. Handbook of Plant and Floral Ornament from Early Herbals. New York:
Dover, 1960.
Hellot. The Art of Dyeing. London, 1789.
Lovell, R. The Complete Herbal. London, 1659.
Parkinson, John. Theatrum Botanicum. London, 1640. Parkinson (1567—1650) was apothecary to
James I and given a title by Charles I for his work in botany. He introduced several new species into
England and described 3,800 different plants in his famous herbal.
Rhind, Williarn. A History of the Vegetable Kingdom. London: Blackie & Son, 1868.
Turner, W. Herbal. London, 1515.
Woodward, Marcus. Leaves from Gerard’s Herbal. New York: Dover. John Gerard (or Gerarde)
(1545—1612) was a surgeon, landscape gardener and “herbalist” to James I of England. His Herb-
all, published in London in 1597, was an adaptation of an earlier work, Stirpium historiae pemp-
tades (1583) of Rembert Dodoens.

PAMPHLETS AND ARTICLES

Bigham, H. “Dyeing Yarn for Weaving,” School Arts, Vol. 70 (Feb., 1971).
“Blackburn Workshop,” Handweaver and Craftsman, Vol. 20, No. 1, (Winter, 1969).
Boydston, K. “Successful Experiment: Michigan Group Explores Natural Dyes,’ Handweaver and
Craftsman, Vol. 14, No. 1, (Winter, 1963).
Brewster, Mela S. “A Practical Study of the Use of Natural Vegetable Dyes in New Mexico.” Uni-
versity of New Mexico Bulletin, Number 306, May 15, 1937.

Bureau of Indian Affairs, Publications Service, Haskell Indian Junior College, Lawrence, Kansas;
various pamphlets.
Cranch, George E. “Unusual Colors from Experiments with Vegetable Dyes,’’ Handweaver and
Craftsman, Vol. 13, No. 3 (Summer, 1962).
“Dyeing Exhibit,” Handweaver and Craftsman, Vol. 20, No. 4 (Fall, 1969).
Edelstein, S.M. “Historic Works on Dyeing,” Plants and Gardens, Vol. 20 (Autumn, 1964). This
article is a bibliography.

134
Fisher, Pat. ‘““Rug Weaving with Natural Dyed Yarns,” Shuttle, Spindle, and Dyepot, Vol. II, No. 2
(Spring, 1971).
Flynn, E.C. ““Make Your Own Dyes from Plants,” Horticulture, Vol. 49, (September, 1971).

Gerber, Fred and Willie Gerber. “Indigo, Discovery of Plants and Experiments in Dyeing,’ Hand-
weaver and Craftsman, Vol. 19 (Fall, 1968).
. “Milkweed and Saldunia in the Dyepot,” Handweaver and Craftsman, Vol. 22, No. 3
(Summer, 1971).
Melvin, A.G. “Dye from Shells,’’ Hobbies, Vol. 75 (Fall, 1971).
Robinson, John P. Jr. ““Tyrian Purple,” Sea Frontiers, Vol. 17, No. 2 (April-May, 1971).
*Schetky, Ethel Jane, ed. Dye Plants and Dyeing—A Handbook; from Plants and Gardens, Vol. 20,
No. 3., Brooklyn Botanical Gardens, 1964.

Society of Apothecaries. Catalogue of Library. London, 1913.

Taggart, Barbara. ‘‘Dyepot,” Shuttle, Spindle & Dyepot, Vol. 2, No. 4 (Fall, 1971).
Whitely, George. ‘“‘Herbs for Dyeing,’”’ New York Times, September 14, 1969.
Woolcot, J. “Ancient Art Revived; Nature as a Source of Pigments in Dyeing Yarns and Fabrics,”
Parks and Recreation, Vol. | (Fall, 1966).

Out-of-print and foreign publications can sometimes be obtained from Craft and Hobby Book Ser-
vice, Big Sur, California, 93920, and K. Drummond Bookseller, 30 Hart Grove Ealing, London WS.

135
 Index of Plants by Color

Yellow, Gold, Orange

.

Agrimony yellow-gold
Apple soft yellow
Barberry light to strong yellow
Big-Bud Hickory yellow
Black Oak gold
Broom yellow to deep yellow
Broomsedge yellow
Buckthorn lemon yellow to bright yellow, old gold (berries);
brownish yellow (bark)
Cherry yellow
Coreopsis bright yellow to burnt orange
Cotton Flowers yellow to orange yellow
Dahlia yellow to bronze-gold
Day Lily yellow to bright yellow
Dog’s Mercury yellow
Dyer’s Greenwood light to warm yellow
Elder (leaves) light to deep yellow
Fustic warm to bright yellow
Geranium yellow, bronze gold, red-orange
Goldenrod lemon to tan yellow, gold
Heather yellow
Hickory gold to orange
Lady’s Bedstraw yellow
Lily of the Valley yellow, gold
Lombardy Poplar khaki, soft yellow, gold
Madder orange
Madder over yellow orange to flame
Mahonia (whole plant) khaki yellow
Marigold yellow to golden yellow
Mountain Laurel soft to deep yellow

136
 Oak yellow, gold, orange
Onion yellow to brassy orange
Parmelia caperata lichen yellow tobrownish yellow
Parmelia saxatilis lichen bronze
Pear soft yellow
Peltigera canina lichen yellow
Privet (leaves) dull to bright yellow
Pyracantha yellow
Queen of the Meadow greenish yellow
Ragwort strong yellow
Rudbeckia greenish yellow, golden yellow (flowers);
primrose yellow (whole plant)
Safflower yellow
St.-John’s Wort medium to buttercup yellow
Silver Birch yellow (leaves); dull yellow to
dull gold (bark)
Smartweed yellow to gold
Snowberry shades of yellow
Sweet Gale yellow
Tansy yellow
Turmeric yellow
Usnea barbata lichen clear yellow
Weld lemon yellow, golden yellow, orange-yellow
Xanthoria parietina lichen yellow, tan

Red, Tan, Brown

Alder yellowish brown

Anchusa tan, red, purple-red
Big Bud Hickory tan
Black Walnut all browns to darkest
Black Willow rosy tan to warm brown
Bloodroot red-orange, pinkish red
Buckthorn brown
Butternut brown
Cherry chocolate brown
Cotton Flowers tan
Cutch browns
Cypress bright tan
Dahlia orange-red
Evernia prunastri lichen brown
Geranium tan to red-orange
Hemlock rose-tan
Hypogymnia psychodes lichen golden brown
Lady’s Bedstraw (roots) red, light orange-red, purplish red
Larch brown
Lobaria pulmonaria lichen brown
Mountain Laurel gray-brown
Madder red, orange-red
Mahonia (roots) tan, buff to brown
Menegussia pertusa lichen deep reddish brown
Norway Maple pinkish tan
Oak brown
Ochrolechia parella lichen orange-red
Osage-Orange yellow-tan
Parmelia omphalodes lichen red-brown
Pokeweed red to soft tan
Prickly-Pear Cactus rose-red to tan
Pyracantha pinkish brown

137
 Sloe red-brown
Sumac warm tan, brown
Umbilicaria pustulata lichen bright red

Blue, Purple, Rose, Pink

Bilberry pink to purple

Black Currant deep lilac to purple
Black Huckleberry shades of purple
Blackberry gray-purple (young shoots); rose (berries)
Cladonia impexa lichen soft pink
Cochineal pink to scarlet, gray-purple
Cochineal over blue purple
Elder (berries) violet
Evernia prunastri lichen plum purple
Indigo pale blue to navy blue
Logwood violet to purple
Mahonia (berries) purplish blue
Menegussia pertusa lichen soft pink
Ochrolechia tartarea red-purple
Privet (berries) pale pink to blue-purple
Roccella tinctoria lichen purple
Silver Birch (bark) purple
Sloe rose-pink
Usnea lirta lichen purple
Wild Grape Vine lavender to reddish purple
Woad pale to deep blue
Xanthoria parietina lighen purple-red, blue

Green

Bracken yellow-green, lime green

Butternut green
Cutch green
Day Lily blue-green
Fustic olive green
Goldenrod yellow-green
Horsetail green
Indigo over yellow green
Ivy yellow-green
Lily of the Valley soft apple green
Nettle yellow-green to gray-green
Privet (leaves) green to dark green
Queen of the Meadow green
Ragwort strong yellow
Rudbeckia (flower heads) green
Weld olive

Gray, Black

Alder black
Anchusa gray
Blackberry (young shoots) gray to near black
Bracken gray
Buckthorn (berries) blue-gray
Butternut gray
Cutch gray to black
Elder (bark) gray
Ivy greenish-gray
Logwood gray to near black
Mountain Laurel gray
Sumac gray
Wild Grape Vine purplish gray
Yellow Flag Iris black

139
 Index of Dye Recipes by
Plant Common Name

Agrimony (Agrimonia eupatoria or A. odorata) 36 Cherry (Prunus species) 62

Alder, See Black Alder, Mountain Alder Cladonia impexa Lichen 107
Alkanet, See Anchusa Common Hemlock (Tsuga canadensis) 40
Anchusa (Alkanna or Anchusa tinctoria or Anchusa Coneflower, See Rudbeckia
officinalis) 41 Coreopsis (Coreopsis tinctoria or C. marmorata) 50
Apple (Malus species) 22 Cotton Flowers (Gossypium species) 91
Arcel (Parmelia caperata)104 Crab’s Eye Lichen (Ochrolechia or Lecanora par-
Ash-colored Ground Liverwort (Peltigera canina) 105 ella) 106
Barberry (Berberis vulgaris) 63 Crawfish Lichen (Ochrolechia or Lecanora par-
Beard Lichen (Usnea barbata) 108 ella) 106
Big-bud Hickory (Carya tomentosa) 59,93 Crostil (Parmelia omphalodes) 104
Bilberry (Vaccinium species) 21 Cudbear Lichen (Ochrolechia tartarea) 106
Birch, See Silver Birch Cutch (Acacia species) 94
Black Alder (Alnus glutinosa) 61 Cypress (Cupressus lawsoniana) 51
Blackberry (Rubus species) 66 Dahlia (Dahlia species) 47
Black Crottal (Parmelia omphalodes) 104 Dark Crottal (Hypogymnia psychodes) 105
Black Currant (Ribes nigrum) 53 Day Lily (Hemerocallis hybrids) 45
Black Huckleberry (Gaylussacia baccata) 59 Dog's Mercury (Mercurialis perennis) 40
Black Oak (Quercus velutina) 37, 93 Dog’s Tooth Lichen (Peltigera canina) 105
Black Walnut (Juglans nigra orJ. regia) 22 Dyer’s Greenwood (Genista tinctoria) 48 .
Black Willow (Salix nigra) 52 Dyers Sumac, See Sumac
Blackthorn, See Sloe Elder (Sambucus nigra and S. canadensis) 65
Bloodroot (Sanguinaria canadensis) 39 English Oak (Quercus robur) 37
Blueberry, See Bilberry Firethorn, See Pyracantha
Bog Myrtle, See Sweet Gale Fustic (Chlorophora tinctoria) 86,94
Bracken (Pteridium aquilinum) 38 Geranium (Pelargonium species) 47
Brake, See Bracken Goldenrod (Solidago species) 48
Broom (Cytisus, Genista, and Spartium species) 50 Gray Stone Crottal (Parmelia saxatilis) 104
Broomsedge (Andropogon virginicus) 90 Green Stone Lichen (Parmelia caperata) 104
Bucks Horn Lichen (Evernia prunastri) 108 Hazel Crottal (Lobaria pulmonaria) 105
Buckthorn (Rhamnus caroliniana, R. cathartica) 71,92 Heather (Erica species) 61
Butternut (Juglans cinerea) 92 Hemlock, See Western Hemlock, Common Hemlock,
Calico Bush, See Mountain Laurel and Southern Hemlock
Calliopsis, See Coreopsis Hickory, See Big-Bud Hickory

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Horsetail (Equisetum species) 44 Ragwort (Senecio jacobaea) 46
Indigo (Indigofera tinctoria) 81,95, 97 Red Oak (Quercus borealis) 37, 93
Ivy (Hedera helix) 42 Reeds (Phragmites species) 90
Korkir (Ochrolechia tartarea) 106 Roccella tinctoria Lichen 107
Lady’s Bedstraw (Galium boreale or G. verum) 68 Rock Tripe (Umbilicaria pustulata) 106
Larch (Larix species) 53 Rudbeckia (Rudbeckia trilobia) 70
Light Crottal (Lecanora parella) 106 Safflower (Carthamus tinctorius) 85
Lily of the Valley (Convallaria majalis) 39 St.-John’s Wort (Hypericum species) 47
Ling, See Heather Scrottyie (Parmelia saxatilis) 104
Logwood (Haematoxylon campechianum) 84 Shield Lichen (Hypogymnia psychodes) 105
Lombardy Poplar (Populus nigra italica) 54 Silver Birch (Betula pendula or B. populifolia) 64
Lungwort (Lobaria pulmonaria) 105 Sloe (Prunus spinosa) 55
Madder (Rubia tinctorum) 75,94, 97 Smartweed (Polygonum hydropiper) 89
Mahonia (Mahonia aquifolium) 69 Snowberry (Symphoricarpos albus) 62
Mares’ Tail, See Horsetail Southern Hemlock (Tsuga caroliniana) 40
Marigold (Tagetes species) 49, 91 Staghorn Sumac, See Sumac
Meadowsweet, See Queen of the Meadow Stag’s Horn (Evernia prunastri) 108
Menegussia pertusa Lichen 108 Stone Crottal (Parmelia caperata) 104
Mountain Alder (Alnus tenuifolia) 61 Stoneyraw (Parmelia saxatilis) 104
Mountain Laurel (Kalmia latifolia) 62 Sumac (Rhus species) 60, 92
Nettle (Urtica dioica) 38 Sweet Gale (Myrica gale) 36
Northern Hemlock, See Common Hemlock Tansy (Tanacetum vulgare) 44
Norway Maple (Acer platanoides) 54 Tansy Ragwort, See Ragwort
Oak, See Black Oak, Red Oak, White Oak, English Turmeric (Curcuma longa) 23
Oak Usnea lirta Lichen 108
Oak Moss Lichen (Evernia prunastri) 108 Usnea barbata Lichen 108
Onion (Allium cepa) 23,93 Waxberry, See Snowberry
Oregon Grape, See Mahonia Weld (Reseda luteola) 45, 90
Osage-Orange (Maclura pomifera) 94 Western Hemlock (Tsuga heterophylla) 40,93
Pear (Pyrus species) 22 White Birch (Betula papyrifera) 64
Pokeberry, See Pokeweed White Oak (Quercus alba) 37
Pokeweed (Phytolacca americana) 58 Wild Grape Vine (Vitis species) 52
Prickly-Pear Cactus (Opuntia polycantha) 49 Woad (/satis tinctoria) 79
Privet (Ligustrum vulgare) 67 Yellow Flag Iris (Iris pseudacorus) 46
Pyracantha (Pyracantha angustifolia) 55 Yellow Wall Lichen (Xanthora parietina) 107
Queen of the Meadow (Filipendula ulmaria) 43 Note: The recipe for Cochineal may be found on page
Ragged Hoary Lichen (Evernia prunastri) 108 74

141
 Index of Dye Recipes by
Plant Botanical Name

Acacia species 94 Hypericum species 47

Acer platanoides 54 Hypogymnia psychodes 105
Agrimonia eupatoria or A. odoratg 36 Indigofera tinctoria 81,95, 97
Alkanna tinctoria 41 Iris pseudacorus 46
Allium cepa 23,93 Isatis tinctoria 79
Alnus glutinosa 61 Juglans cinerea 92
Alnus tenuifolia 61 Jugians nigra or J. regia 22
Anchusa tinctoria or A. officinalis 41 Kalmia latifolia 62
Andropogon virginicus 90 Larix species 53
Berberis vulgaris 63 Lecanora parella 106
Betula pendula or B. populifolia or B. papyri- Ligustrum vulgare 67
fera 64 Lobaria pulmonaria 105
Carthamus tinctorius 85 Maclura pomifera 94
Carya tomentosa 59,93 Mahonia aquifolium 69
Chlorophora tinctoria 86, 94 Malus species 22
Cladonia impexa 107 Menegussia pertusa 108
Convallaria majalis 39 Mercurialis perennis 40
Coreopsis tinctoria or C. marmorata 50 Myrica gale 36
Cupressus lawsoniana 51 Ochrolechia parella or O. tartarea 106
Curcuma longa 23 Opuntia polycantha 49
Cytisus species 50 Parmelia caperata, P. saxatilis or P. omphal-
Dahlia species 47 odes 104
Equisetum species 44 Pelargonium species 47
Erica species 61 Peltigera canina 105
Evernia prunastri 108 Phragmites species 90
Filipendula ulmaria 43 Phytolacca americana 58
Galium boreale or G. verum) 68 Polygonum hydropiper 89
Gaylussacia baccata 59 Populus nigra italica 54
Genista species 50 Prunus species 62
Genista tinctoria 48 Prunus spinosa 55
Gossypium species 91 Pteridium aquilinum 38
Haematoxylon campechianum 84 Pyracantha angustifolia 55
Hedera helix 42 Pyrus species 22
Hemerocallis hybrids 45 Quercus alba 37

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Quercus borealis 37,93 Solidago species 48
Quercus robur 37 Spartium species 50
Quercus velutina 37,93 Symphoricarpos albus 62
Reseda luteola 45,90 Tagetes species 49, 91
Rhamnus caroliniana or R. cathartica 71,92 Tanacetum vulgare 44
Rhus species 60, 92 Tsuga canadensis 40
Ribes nigrum 53 Tsuga caroliniana 40
Roccella tinctoria 107 Tsuga heterophylla 40,93
Rubia tinctorum 75, 94,97 Umbilicaria pustulata 106
Rubus species 66 Urtica dioica 38
Rudbeckia trilobia 70 Usnea barbata 108
Salix nigra 52 Usnea lirta 108
Sambucus nigra or S. canadensis 65 Vaccinium species 21
Sanguinaria canadensis 39 Vitis species 52
Senecio jacobaea 46 Xanthora parietina 107

143
 Table of Measures

Weight
1 ounce (0z) equals 28.349 grams (g), and 1 pound (Ib) equals .453 kilograms
(kg), but for our purposes the following rough equivalents are practical:
1 oz = 30g
Y2 lb = 2508
1 lb = 5kg
2 1b = 1kg
It is only in the measurements of chemicals that one needs even this degree of
accuracy. Whenever passible, measures are given in American teaspoons (tsp)
or tablespoons (tbsp) as well.

Volume
The British gallon, or Imperial gallon, contains 4 Imperial (40-ounce) quarts;
the American gallon contains 4 quarts of 32 ounces each. I have found this to be
just enough for dyeing 4 ounces of wool, but Americans should use a generous
gallon. The British cup is 10 fluid ounces; the American is 8 fluid ounces.
Because American and British liquid measures are different, I have tried to
avoid using fluid ounces and multiples thereof. I have, where possible, used
teaspoons and tablespoons, and so give their fluid-ounce equivalents here:
1 tsp = 1/6 fl oz (1 European coffee spoon)
1 tbsp = 1/2 floz (1 European soup spoon)
2 tbsp = 1 floz
For dry measure, I have given quantities in quarts (qts) and pecks (pks); the
difference between the American and British is so EE that I have not dis-
tinguished between them.
I have totally ignored the metric liters, but for the convenience of dyers using
the metric system, the following equivalents may be used:
1 floz = 30cc
1 gal = 4¥% liters
1 qt (dry measure) = 1 liter
1 pk = 9 liters

144
$8.95

DYES FROM
PLANTS
Plants have always fascinated us because they give us
such great benefits: foods and flavorings, colorful bou-
quets, fragrant perfumes, and medicines, many of which
are still used today in pharmaceutical preparations.
Vegetable dyes do not pollute the environment with
harsh synthetic chemicals because they are derived from
natural sources. If you want a yellow dye, try a handful
of onion skins by the simple recipe given in Chapter 1.
If you want to duplicate the soft glowing shades of the
Scottish tartans, find a lichen and follow the instructions
in Chapter 7.
Dyes from Plants is a delightfully readable resource PHOTO: LOIS LORD

for craftsmen interested in vegetable dyeing. Each plant

for which a recipe is given is identified by its common
and botanical name and by an illustration showing the 4

important parts. “T have taught dyeing in more countries than anyone, I

There are chapters on preparing fibers and equipment think, and therefore speak with experience of the dif-
for dyeing, mordants, gathering and using dye-plants ferent plants.” Seonaid Mairi Robertson, author, art
in every season, dyes of historical importance, top- educator, and craftsman, has taught in Scotland, Eng-
dyeing, lichen dyes, special dyes for cotton, linen, and land, Denmark, Holland, and Germany, and has ex-
silk, and planting a dye garden. perimented with dye-plants in Italy. She taught in
Once you have dyed the fiber, you should keep a Brazil in both Rio de Janeiro and the remote Minas
record of how to get the same shade again—dyers are Gervais, where she learned many native methods.
always discovering new methods and sources. There While in Canada and while teaching at Pennsylvania
are suggestions for keeping accurate notes, and for State University and the University of Washington,
putting the threads and yarns to use in stitchery, weav- Seattle, she investigated North American dye-plants.
ing, knitting, crochet, knotting and plaiting, tie-dyeing “I wrote Dyes from Plants because I was excited by
and warp-dyeing. A list of plants by dye color, an index the beautiful work my students did and because it is a
of dye-plants by common name, and an index of dye- way of leading people, especially children, out into the
plants by botanical name are also provided for the dyer’s world they live in, to observe it more closely and to
convenience. find a new set of relationships to it, to lead them to
Dyeing from plants is being pursued by an ever- have a care of it through wonder at its variety and
widening group of craftsmen. Perhaps it is because the complexity.”
study of plants is in itself so rewarding. Cultivating, Seonaid Robertson was educated as an art teacher in
collecting, and learning about the history of dye-plants Edinburgh, and did post-graduate work in psychology
and dyes widens and deepens your relationship to the at the University of London. She is Deputy Head of
world. It also leads you to deal reciprocally with the the Art Teacher’s Certificate Course at Goldsmith’s
environment, by taking just a little from nature to make College, University of London. She has written many
this world a more colorful place in which to live. articles on arts, crafts, and dyeing.

Van Nostrand Reinhold Company

New York Cincinnati Toronto London Melbourne ISBN 0-442-26975-7