plants and people dyesdyes. dyes make the world more colorful. when the first man picked the first...
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Dyes have been used, valued, and traded for millennia
Ancient clay tablet with cuneiform characters spellingout a recipe for dyeing wool.
Fastness
Refers to the tendency of a dye
to resist fading as a result of
washing or exposure tolight
StrikeRefers to how quickly the fiber takes up the dye.So, “fastness” has nothing to do with speed, but “strike” does.
Plant dyes
Rule of thumb:One pound of plant material to one pound of fiber.
Plants are simmered orfermented to release the dye into the dyebath.
Mordants
Mordants are chemicalswhich help the dyemolecules bind to thefibers. Iron, copper,chrome, alum, andurea are often usedwith plant-base dyes.
The dyeing processPrepare dyebath
Wash and thoroughly wet fiberMordant
Simmer, ferment, or solar dye Mordant or additive
RinseDry
Indigo BlueIndigofera tinctoria, a memberof the Fabaceae.
Dyed articles are green until thedye is exposed to oxygen.
The process is messy and smelly. You can buy indigo powder orcakes of dye that have alreadybeen fermented and are readyto dye.
BLUE and PURPLE
Berries. Often not washfast.
Alkanet—blue-purple
Woad, the blue dye of ancient Britons
PURPLE
Orchil lichens. Beautiful colors, but rare, and require fermentation with urea.
Logwood—bluish purples, or gray-lavender with additives
Pink and Red
Brazilwood, Caesalpinia echinataSouth American tree whose wood yields red dye.
Madder, Rubia tinctorumRoots yield a red, pink, or reddish-brown dye.
Yellow and Orange
Weld, Reseda, or Mignonette—Shades of yellow and gold
Eggs dyed with onionskins, gold to brown
Yellow and Orange
Turmeric, saffron, and safflower areused as food flavoring and dye, but theywill dye fabric as well.
Goldenrod, common locally,Gives a good yellow dye.
Kamala
Kamala, Mallotus philippensis, is the source of a strong yellowdye. The hairs on the capsule are the dye-containing part.
Sodium hydroxide is needed to release the dye from the extract.
GreensMany plants will yield a green dye -- mostly chlorophyll--but these are oftennot colorfast. More successful greens canbe obtained by dyeing yellow over blue orvice versa.
Tan, Brown, and Black
Many plants will yield tan or brown. The additionof iron makes colors “sadder” or blacker, though it can be damaging to fibers. Oak galls, rich in tannic acid, can be used to darken colors.