I have been using natural plant dyes to create colour on my Portland fibre and yarn for over 10 years. This means that I am really still an apprentice dyer, as it takes years and years to understand how natural dyes work. The chemistry is not difficult, but you have to include the environment in which the plants grow, the weather just before harvest, even time of day is a factor.
It is easy to fall into the trap of using plants that are actually stains and not dyes. Indeed, I fell into this trap myself when I started out. I now focus on just 3 main plant dyes. They have been used since at least the Bronze age and possibly earlier, there was colour in prehistory. The plants are weld, which gives bright yellows, woad, which gives blue, and madder, which gives reds, pinks and oranges. These can then be modified or overdyed with each other to give all the greens and browns as well. Natural dyeing is fun, but guaranteeing the colour is not really possible, yet!
Weld
Weld is a biannual, which spends a year looking disappointing and after a winter suddenly throws up tall spikes of yellow flowers. The whole tops can be used and will grow back after harvesting. I do feed them well with organic liquid wormery fluid.
The brightest colours are achieved by just using the fresh flower tops with few leaves. The yellows are still amazing when you use the dried chopped tops. The only issue is that the yellow fades in bright light.
If you look at the medieval tapestries in the V&A, you can see that they look very blue. This is because the yarns were dyed with weld, woad and madder. The greens were achieved by overdyeing the weld with woad. The areas that would have been green now look blue and some of the pale yellows would have been vibrant. If you can imagine that the effects are amazing.
Woad
You may have heard of woad, as the Iceni tribe were reported by Caesar to have painted their naked bodies with woad. If you have studied the Gallic Wars by Caesar, you will know that some of his claims about his opponents are distinctly odd. He always made the ‘barbarians’ out to be wild, uneducated people. It is also well known that the people who write history always put their spin on the people they have conquered to justify their actions. Personally, I believe that the Iceni wore blue cloths. Who would go into any battle without some form of protection? It was also cold!
Woad is another biannual, which loves to grow on chalk. It was grown extensively in the Normandy region of France and along the downs in the South of England. In Dorset there are places with the name Woden or similar in them, which may relate to areas where woad was grown. This time we use the leaves from the first year of growth and collect the seeds in the second.
Woad is a hungry plant so after picking the leaves, I give them a really good feed and water. Last year, it was very warm and I was able to harvest the leaves every 2 to 3 weeks. If I cannot use the leaves immediately, I chop the leaves up and make woad balls for later use.
Madder
Wild madder grows in hedgerows around the countryside. They are invasive perennials, which create large root networks. Madder has been selectively bred for hundreds of years creating a dye dense cultivar. It is another hungry plant and benefits greatly from a good covering of manure every Spring.
In this case the red roots are used. It takes up to 4 years for the plants to grow enough root to make it worth harvesting. The bed then has to be left for a few years to recover, before the next harvest. Most madder that is sold in the UK has actually been grown in Turkey, where the weather is more reliable.
Madder is not easy to use as a dye as the roots contain both red and orange pigments. The orange can take over. One of the myths is that boiling madder destroys the red pigments. This is more wrong than you can believe. In fact, better reds can be obtained from boiling!
Other Dye Plants
In addition to these natural plant dyes, I also use a few others which grow in my garden. These include Rhubarb roots which given golden colours and Dyers Chamomile, the bees love the flowers and they give a softer yellow colour. Then there are the onion skins which are incredibly reliable giving yellows and oranges.
If you are interested in learning more about natural plant dyeing, then have a look at my natural dye workshops.
If you have any specific questions or want to ask about a custom created piece especially for you then please contact me.
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