Making natural dyes from plants

**homesteadmamma** · 05-21-2003, 12:37 PM

This I'm going to try:

http://www.pioneerthinking.com/naturaldyes.html

**voodidit** · 05-23-2003, 12:37 AM

Let us know if it works!

**frugalmel** · 05-23-2003, 01:38 AM

Sounds neat! Definitely tell us how it goes!

**Michelle** · 05-23-2003, 08:05 AM

That sounds so cool...keep us posted

**BelindaUK** · 05-23-2003, 09:45 AM

A good friend of mine has done dyeing from plants. She did a course in weaving and textiles, and as part of that had to investigate natural dyes. She planted a garden of 'dyers herbs' - many herbs contain natural dyes (eg dyers chamomile produces orangey-yellow, some sorts of sage produce purple, flax I think produces blue) and would have once been used to dye homespun cloth. She had to produce samples of cloth dyed with her natural dyes, alongside contrasting samples using modern chemical dyes.

One of the interesting things was that different fibres gave very different results, for instance you might get shade variances, or even a difference between yellow and green by dying different fabric samples.

You can even use household waste such as onion skins for natural dyes! It's a fascinating topic which I'd love to pursue at some point.

BelindaUK