Dyeing with Herbs

Herbal dyes produce the brightest colour possible, and are a good alternative to commercially made dyes.  Dyes can be made from many leaves, flowers, barks, and roots.  These dyes are permenant and have vibrant, brilliant colours.  Generally speaking, these natural dyes need fixing agents like chromic acid, iron, tin crystals, potash, or copper sulfate.            To make your own herbal dyes you will need:  a large iron pot, a fixing agent (alum, chrome, copper, or tin), a large stiring utensil, the cloth you are dying, and spring water.  You begin by making what is essentially a herbal bath for the fabric.  Steep blossoms 30 minutes, barks and roots need to be soaked overnight and then boiled for 1 hour, and berries should be crushed and cooked for 30 minutes to get best results.  This mixture is strained and left standing.  Next, mix water with your fixative to dissolve it.  The following proportions are used to creative the fixative.  For 1 gallon of water you will need:                    1-3/4 teaspoons alum and 1-1 1/2 teaspoons cream of tartar                    1/2 teaspoon chrome                    1 teaspoon tin and 1 1/2 teaspoons cream of tartar                    2 teaspoons copper           Add you cloth to this solution and simmer for about 30 minutes.  Then, squeeze out the fixative liquid and move your cloth into the herbal bath already prepared.  It is up to you how long you leave the cloth in the herbal bath.  Start at 30 minutes, then remove the cloth to check the colour.  If the colour isn't dark enough, continue soaking.  Once you have reached the intensity of colour you want, rinse your cloth in very hot water and allow it to air dry.  Some dye colour created using plants:            BLACK - Boil the material with sorrel leaves, then boil the material again with longwood and copperas.           BLUE - Elderberry, also wode.             CRIMSON - Pokeberry boiled with alumn             GOLD - Chamomile and chrome            GREEN - Pressed goldenseal mixed with indigo and alumn, parsley, bay and alumn, lily of valley and alum.  In Celtic countries the making of green dye was once a very special and secerate ritual and only preformed by women.  It is considered an unlucky colour to wear, and the colour of the Wee Folk.  Wearing green is said to anger them, for it is a colour they jealously gaurd.            OCHER - Red clover and chrome             ORANGE/YELLOW - Sassafras bark or balsam flowers, bloodroot             PINK - Pink zinnias and chrome             PURPLE - Iris petals, marjoram flowrs, and alum              RED - Madder, dogwood             YELLOW/BROWN - Hickory or red oak bark, catnip and alum, marigold and alum           You can also make egg dyes using the same process without the fixative.  Bring the herb to boil, then simmer 30 minutes.  Add 1 teaspoon of vinegar in an emamel pan and then dip the eggs.  For the best dying results use the following chart:             BLUES or PURPLES - Red cabbage, blueberry, blackberry            BROWN - Coffee grounds, walnut shells, maple bark            GREEN/YELLOW - Carrots, calendula, onion skins             REDS - Cooked beets, cranberry, raspberry           On a side note, you can get pink by varying the time you leave the egg in the Red dyes.