naturaldyes | Recent Entries

Do you make crafts? Do you like to look at crafts? Would you like to get (or give) advice about crafts? All crafts are welcome. Share photos, stories about projects in progress, and connect with other crafty folks.

You are welcome to make your own posts, and this community will also do a monthly call for people to share what they are working on, or what they've seen which may be inspiring them. Images of projects old or new, completed or in progress are welcome, as are questions, tutorials and advice.

If you have any questions, ask them here!

holyschist

This community seems to be pretty dead these days, and my interests have shifted away from the, so I'm trying to clean up my mental clutter, since I disappeared from DW for a couple years there. Would anyone else be interested in taking over as administrator in case the community revives in the future?

laughingrat

OK--I know you can do this cause I've seen the results, but unfortunately, a lot of the stuff I see on using red onions shows a brownish color resulting. One site mentioned using vinegar as the mordant in order to draw out the green, but something about that sounds fishy, so I thought I'd ask around here: anyone use red onion skins to get green? What mordant/process did you use? Any cautions, such as "Hey, don't boil that, it'll turn brown" and similar?

Thanks!

neolithicsheep

Still need to pick up a strainer so I can extract cochineal, but in the meantime I used isopropyl alcohol to extract dye from alkanet, and played more with my indigo vat (of course).
( Pictures! )

neolithicsheep

I've just started playing with natural dyes, first picking them out of my back yard and then, when I got tired of turning things yellow, buying them. So far I've used madder (my method was problematic, but I just wanted yarn that wasn't YELLOW) and indigo, and I am sort of in love with the magic of indigo (I used the Jacquard pre-reduced indigo kit).

Pics of dandelion dye, one of three skeins of various yellow (don't even talk to me about red cabbage, I discovered I just can't stand the smell long enough to dye things with it), a couple of madder dyed yarn, and mostly indigo! are over here at my flickr account.

This weekend I'm planning to do either alkanet (if I remember to pick up isopropyl alcohol) or cochineal, more updates as events warrant. ;)

helen99

Note: I haven't tried this yet so can't yet verify how it actually works.

There was a meeting of the Mycological Association of Washington (MAW) this evening. The speaker was Susan Hopkins, who gave a talk on making textile dyes from various types of mushrooms. During the talk, she distributed a handout titled, "The Best Mushrooms for Color: A short Selection of the Best Mushrooms to Dye Wool". My favorite mushroom dye was made from the Hapalopilus Nidulans, which turns a vivid purple when mixed with a strong alkaline like ammonia or potassium hydroxide. That's something I'd like to try - it's a local mushroom so I may be able to find some around where I live. From class notes: ( The dying process )
This link shows other dyes that can be made with local mushrooms, some of which I may be able to grow myself. I've had some luck with growing Reishis, which make rust colored dye. Mushrooms for Dyes, Paper, Pigments & Myco-Stix™ by Miriam Rice contains additional information about mushroom dyes.

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Natural Dyes

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Green dye from red onion skins?

Indigo and alkanet

Indigo!

Mushroom dyes

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June 2025

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