Late last summer I tossed a few flowers from the garden into jars and covered them with boiling water to make a “colour tea.” I then tossed in little bits of cotton thread to see what would happen. This wasn’t about anything that I had read in a book. I didn’t use any mordants. I didn’t weigh the plant material or the items to be dyed. Of these quick and lazy experiments, coreopsis flowers aka tickseed created the most potent and lasting effect.
The coreopsis is blooming again and this year I am striving to make good use of them. I have a few different and unidentified types of coreopsis in the garden so the experiment will be to see how they differ as dyeing plants. I still haven’t experimented with mordants. The colour may not be lasting, but for my purposes they don’t need to be. Most of the scraps that I dye are for little stitched art projects and doodles. They will never be washed and they probably won’t see much light once they are complete.
So far I have dyed some cotton thread and some vintage cotton items purchased at a junk shop that I frequent. I tried dyeing some old lace, but it was probably made of unnatural materials and the colour didn’t take. I have since read that coreopsis produces the best colours in wool and that it won’t dye cotton. It may not be bright orange in cotton, but I’m happy with the result.
I’m really enjoying this casual foray into dyeing with materials grown in my garden. It has given me a new way of looking at and appreciating the plants that I grow. I’m not a big fan of coreopsis and may have pulled them out by now if not for this new found usefulness.
Greetings from Calgary.
Nice, pretty results on cotton. I really enjoy seeing your projects. thnx!
I love natural dyeing, I always grow a little patch of coreopsis tinctoria in the corner of the veg patch. With a slightly alkaline dye pot, it produces a very strong burnt orange/red on alum mordanted wool. Other dye plants I like to grow are madder, Japanese indigo, weld and woad. Many garden plants produce nice colours – tansy, comfrey, oak, walnut, marjoram, rudbeckia, deep coloured hollyhocks, goldenrod, rhubarb root. Your purple perilla/shiso would be worth experimenting with, or opal basil. Kitchen scraps like black tea, chamomile, onion skins, avocado rinds/pits are also excellent. BTW a solution of soaked and blended soy beans makes an interesting cold mordant to use on cellulose fibres (and protein/animal fibres) without needing to mess around with metallic mordants. I think Japanese dyers use soy as a mordant.
If you stash your deadheads from deep purple blossoms like pansies, violas, and petunias in the freezer, you can do an interesting ice blossom dye bath (India Flint technique) by infusing them in slightly warm water, then cold dyeing – nice shades of blue and turquoise.
Cheers,
Jake (who really wants to go home and play in the garden)
So much good knowledge here. Thanks so much for sharing Jake!
I’ve had luck with a few of the plants you’ve listed, but had not thought of trying marjoram! I have thought about trying shiso but want to wait until the plant is more mature. The younger seedlings I pulled are not as potent, even as an herb. I’ve done a lot with kitchen scraps and really like all of those mentioned. I did not know that about soy.
One day I’d like to try indigo. One day….
My very purple, blue, and midnight colored iris have left stains on the painted walls and mantle as they wilt/shrivel so i’m sure they would be great options for dying fabric.
Setting the dye is something i know nothing about though, and even my experiences with packaged dye and salt have ended up faded and bleeding.