From weeds and wildflowers, roots and soil, I find lovely dyes for my yarn. This slide show opens with tansy, a plant which is attractive to ants and bees but is well known for keeping flies away. Its flower tops and stems make a yellow-gold dye. Wildflowers such as goldenrod, mullein, and rabbit brush also yield golden dyes. I have found that rabbit brush from the Pacific Northwest, picked near the Columbia River, gives a lighter shade of gold than does rabbit brush from the Southwest. Climate, seasons and plant maturity factor into the color any given dye plant will produce. This randomness in color is part of what makes this process so appealing to me. Mordants also effect dye colors. (A mordant is usually a mineral salt such as alum, tin or copper which is added to a dye bath to assists the bonding between dye molecules and the protein fibers of sheep's wool.) Other wild plants which give shades of yellow are sage--producing a pale gold. Indian Paintbrush gives me a dull, yellow-peach. Domestic flowers such as cosmos (featured in the banner for this web page), and marigolds produce golds--the latter yielding an exuberant, brassy color. However, marigold dyes will fade quickly in sunlight and wash out of yarn. In fact, all of these yellow dye plants will fade to some degree if exposed to prolonged sunlight. Luckily, centuries ago dyers discovered that two plants--dyer's broom and weld-- that do not fade as readily. These are discussed below with other traditional, imported dye stuffs. Elderberry produces a purple-brown dye on wool but it is very sensitive to ph. If washed, its color may shift to green. Walnuts make a rich brown dye. The dark, blue stones in this bowl are "indigo stones" which are made from indigo plant leaves. These stones are the dried sludge from an indigo vat. Stones are much easier to transport than leaves, and they keep better. Indigo stones are not dissolvable in water. The ancient way of reducing indigo was with urea--urine was widely available and free. Urine is better for the wool and safer to work with than most chemical processes. In this slide show you will see two indigo vats--the jar with the blue solution is before fermentation of the dye. At this stage if yarn were immersed in the vat, it would not soak up the indigo. The second stage is the fermented vat--the liquid is yellow-green and quite clear. This is when yarn will soak up the indigo dye molecules. Only after the dipped yarn is raised out of the vat and into the air will the yarn begin to turn blue. Indigo dye requires oxygenation. It is quite magical to watch this process. Yarn turns from yellow to green to blue before your eyes. The slide included here of blue yarn on a window box with the red flowers shows some of the shades a dyer can make with indigo. The deepest blue skein of yarn was dyed in a urine indigo vat. The chemical vats do not tend to achieve that deep, rich, midnight blue. Cochineal is another traditional dyestuff with a history as ancient as indigo. This cup is filled with these dried insects that offer a red-purple dye. I believe cochineal are found in the American Southwest, Central and South America, the Mediterranean and Eurasia where they feed on cacti. A similar insect, kermes, (which lives off oak gulls and generally is found in Eurasia) yields a more crimson dye than that shown on the cochineal-dyed wool in this basket which tends to be more magenta-colored. Madder root is another Eurasian plant which makes a deep, brownish red. The roots from this plant may be harvested after three years of growth but offers stronger dyes after seven years. Their roots can be thick as pencils--the dyestuff shown here in a jar lid are ground up. Dyer's broom and weld are wildflowers both bearing yellow flowers that have been renown among dyers since antiquity for their primary yellow dyes which are fast to sunlight and washing. 
These plants enable dyers to make brighter greens than those achievable with rabbit brush, tansy or the other sources of golden dyes mentioned above. (Green is obtained by over-dyeing indigo-blue yarn in a pot of yellow dye.) In this slide a skein dyed with dyer's broom sits beside a ball of yarn dyed with marigold. Their difference in color is remarkable. Saffron is another ancient dyestuff. These slides show Persian saffron which yields a bright yellow dye much like marigolds. I have worked with saffron from Mexico which offered me a duller shade of yellow than shown here. A little bit of saffron goes a long way. However, the cost of this spice precludes dyeing large quantities with it. It isn't very light fast either. As mentioned above, weld or dyer's broom would be the better choice in terms of color permanence. Logwood is an imported dyestuff native to Central America. Along with lichens, I do not advocate using them often. Both are rare and in many cases are considered among threatened species. Logwood has been exported all over the world. Even tweed weavers in Ireland could buy this source of dye a century or more ago. Logwood makes a variety of purples as seen in this slide showing yarn draped over my fence. The following slide is of a collection of logwood and indigo-dyed yarns. The indigo skeins are on the left. I never tire of looking at yarns made from natural dyes. Their colors are saturated with movement and each skein is its own, one-of-kind-color PLAY SLIDESHOW   Further Reading You may read more about natural dyes on the Journals and Magazines page of this website. Each article features or includes information about dyes from nature: 
"Brew Me A Rainbow," Shuttle, Spindle & Dyepot. Handweavers Guild of America, Atlanta, GA, Vol xxix no 3, summer 1998. "Tapestries Wed To The Soil: A Profile of Sarah Swett," Spin Off. Interweave Press, Loveland, CO, Winter 1997. "Tierra Wools," Spin Off. Interweave Press, Loveland, CO, Summer 1999. "Irish Tapestry Weavers Find A Bit Of Home In The American Southwest," Spin Off, Interweave Press, Loveland CO. Fall 1997. To order these articles click on the websites below: www.weavespindye.org (Shuttle, Spindel & Dyepot, Handweavers Guild of America) www.interweave.com (Spin Off, Interweave Press books, magazines, and conferences) Suggested Books The Colour Cauldron, by Su Grierson, Mill Books, Perth, 1986 (distributed by Interweave Press). A Weavers Garden, by Rita Buchanan, Interweave Press, 1987. Indigo, Madder and Marigold, by Trudy Van Stralen, Interweave Press, 1993. Explore an Iranian Natural Dye Factory, click here for photos.WeavingShepherding_natural_dye_show.htmlhttp://www.meghannuttallsayres.com/Meghan_Nuttall_Sayres/Magazines_and_Journals.htmlhttp://www.weavespindye.org/http://www.interweave.com/http://www.meghannuttallsayres.com/Meghan_Nuttall_Sayres/Anahita_Dye_Pics.htmlWeavingShepherding_natural_dye_show.htmlWeavingShepherding_natural_dye_show.htmlWeavingShepherding_natural_dye_show.htmlshapeimage_1_link_0shapeimage_1_link_1shapeimage_1_link_2shapeimage_1_link_3shapeimage_1_link_4

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