Category: Plant Dye

20 Nov

Privet Yellow

Amelia Hoskins / Dye Bath Processes, Natural Plant Dyes, Plant Dye / / 0 Comments

Privet leaves yellow for silks

SILKS:  Habotai and Erin

Habotai soaked 24hrs.  Erin soaked 72hrs

Silks premordanted with Alum Sulphate.

Samples modified show more towards gold with citric Acid and Cream of Tartar, and a touch of iron gives green-black.    Iron modifier can be used sparingly to achieve a green.

Privet yellow is similar in to privet dyeing in 2024. Page link

 

13 Nov

Sloe Berry dyed silks

Amelia Hoskins / Dye Bath Processes, Natural Plant Dyes, Plant Dye, Plant dye processes / / 0 Comments

Sloe berries dark blue: first I've ever foraged

Soaked for a few days, boiled and simmered. Left to rest overnight.  Boiled up again and left to cool before straining plant material, and adding silk to the dye bath.

Sloe berry dye silk samples modified.  From these tests, I chose to use aluminium sulphate for Erin and Habotai silk

From TOP clockwise:

  • Aluminium Sulphate     -  Pink
  • Calcium Carbonate       -  Dull Brown
  • Citric Acid                        - Red
  • Cream of Tartar             -  Salmon
  • Sodium Bicarbonate     -  Russet Brown
  • Ferrous Sulphate           -  Charcoal

Sloe berries removed - Silk and lace dyed. Cotton lace was mordanted in Alum Acetate

Died results of Sloe dyed silk and cotton

All similar, though silks modified in aluminium sulphate and antique cotton lace modified in aluminium acetate.  Cotton lace is more pinky.  I often make a resist circle by using rubber bands of tying with cotton twine.

10 Nov

Hawthorn Berries Autumn

Amelia Hoskins / Dye Bath Processes, Dye Plants, Plant Dye / / 0 Comments

Hawthorn Berries - October - November 2025

Two pickings: October Berries picked when bright red, when leaves still on branches, and November, when only the berries are there; easier to see and pick, but they are darker red, which I think leads towards lavender results.

Hawthorn berry dyed silks

Red habotai silk result is from soaking in hawthorn berry dye bath modified with citric acid (at least 50 grams to 250ml dye liquid).  Weaker lavender silk soaked in non modified dye bath, but pre-mordanted in Alum Sulphate.  Weaker result because the first Erin dyed silk took most of the pigment strength.

Hawthorn dyed Erin silk result Lavender

Erin silk (right) first soak in the dye; result dark lilac on drying. This may fade to more pink.  Middle silk grey result as second soak.  Pink silk is darker (photo didn't catch it)

I chose Erin silk to take up the first strong pigment release, then add subsequent silks for paler colours which became grey.

Erin silk - Citric Acid - pink

Erin silk result after soaking 24hrs in citric acid modified dye bath. (separate dye bath)

Different silks and order of dye bath usage

The first soak in dye bath gives the strongest colour.   Subsequent silk dyes are a shade lighter.  Alum mordanted silks varied in colour tone.  Erin silk (thicker slub) took dye well and result is lavender. However Habotai (thin) turned grey with just a hint of the lavender tone. Modifiers can be painted/printed on such a grey tone to get colours: or it can be bundle dyed for more interest.

Samples October and samples November

Small samples in dye bath can be very dark/bright, absorbing much pigment, such as these small Erin strips almost scarlet.  I normally put samples in with the first silk soaking.  Erin does seem to absorb dye better/quicker than Habotai. [Remembering that I hadn't washed/scoured the second Habotai which turned grey)

09 Nov

Sunflower Dyed Silk

Amelia Hoskins / Dye Bath Processes, Dye Plants, Plant Dye, Plant dye processes / / 0 Comments

Brightest Yellow Sunflowers

My son brought me some sunflowers from a girl seller in the street. They weren't large, but they were very bright deep yellow.

Sunflower Modifier Tests

Sunflower dye bath with Erin Silk and palette with dye for modifying

Erin silk dyed with Sunflowers

Sunflower yellow dyed Silk

TO DO...

A dark olive to be made for print paste... TO BE CONTINUED 

04 Nov

Dock Seeds Dye

Amelia Hoskins / Dye Bath Processes, Dye Plants, Plant Dye / / 0 Comments

Dock Seeds Dye - good source of beige

Dock seeds dyed habotai and Erin silk

Dock seed dyed Erin silk and Habotai silk

Russet Red Dock Seeds

Plant seeds collected in October, when crisp and dry red russet.  Quite a big dish full so the dye pan quantity made gave reasonable colour, but also will make weaker dye baths if continually brewed up.  Colours are quite strong, so well worth collecting as much as possible from my allotment plant.

Erin Silk samples in dye palette of variety of modifiers.  Shades can then be chosen for modifying silk piece and for mixing print pastes.  Erin silk, which looks a bit like linen, takes on a stronger or darker colour than the Habotai silk. The dock creamy beige is quite warm with slight variations created by the modifiers.

Workshop table has red-brown docks seeds in bowl after boiling up, the dye liquid in a plastic pot and also some eucalyptus leaves soaking in water.

Modifiers Test Palette

Samples are soaked 24hrs in modified dye. 2tsps of dye liquid + 2grms modifier powder. Slight variations are interesting. More larger samples coming....

  1. Top right - Aluminium Sulphate
  2. Centre right - Calcium Carbonate
  3. Bottom right - Citric Acid
  4. Bottom left - Sodium Bicarbonate
  5. Center left - Ferrous Sulphate (iron)

Modifier Silk Sample Results

Results on Erin silk (thicker weave) and Habotai silk (thinner, smoother)

Different silks will take dye differently, I discovered.  Some good colours here with modifiers, which helps me determine which modifiers to use.  I mix them into the final dye bath, after the tests.

Russet Red Dock Seeds

Workshop table has red-brown docks seeds in bowl after boiling up, the dye liquid in a plastic pot and also some eucalyptus leaves soaking in water.

28 Oct

Dahlia dyed Silks

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DAHLIA - Yellow Dyed Silk

I thought dahlias would give pink, but NO, golden yellow.  Petals are soaked firstly for days, then heated gently, before adding silk. The yellow flower centre gives the strong yellow dye on Erin Silk, and a duller warm yellow on Habotai Silk.

Pink dahlias to make a bath

Dahlias being press dried

Quite a lot of dahlia flowers saved, pressed: worth trying some in bundle dyes.  [To do...]

27 Oct

Sumac Flower Dye – Salmon Pink

Amelia Hoskins / Dye Bath Processes, Dye Plants, Plant Dye, Plant dye processes / / 0 Comments

SUMAC Flower seeds silk dye Salmon Pink Terracotta

Modifier tests on Sumac dye

Good strong tones achieved with modifiers.  [See notebook image above.]  I chose to simply use alum sulphate as a pre-mordant (which matches my silk pieces, although no mordant at all (centre test sample), would be fine.  An interesting change from predominant salmon pink, is the pale straw sample, modified with Sodium Bicarbonate, (alkaline). This stops the pink coming through, but Sumac is more valuable for the stronger terracotta pinks.

Shetland wool was soaked in dye jar, but probably not mordanted, and has oils in (must be alkaline), which prevented the pink shades.  Shetland wool, dyed ginger was found in previous year's jar of Sumac dye!  Worth leaving wool in for longer after dyeing silk pieces.

Sumac flower spikes start deep red, but these were picked when turned russet, in October.  Soak flowers in water until dye appears. I left these for a few weeks before adding fabric.  Silks Habotai and Erin were soaked for a few days amongst the flower seeds. They took up dye quickly, but I wanted to make sure they got as strong as possible.

26 Oct

Amaranth Pink

Amelia Hoskins / Dye Bath Processes, Dye Plants, Plant Dye / / 0 Comments

November Amaranth dye jar success!

This year, 2025, I grew amaranth from seed, and they thrived in west facing pots.  Tassels get quite long, if left through to August.

Bright Pink achieved with Apple skins 'vinegar

After adding more flowers to soak in August-October dye jar, together with apple vinegar from apple waste and skins, the advised Ph3 was achieved.  The habotai silk finally TOOK the colour - a bright magenta pink.  It held and did not wash out, also rose-magenta pink after drying.  CONCLUSION: Either longer soaking OR apple vinegar addition allowed for dye absorption.  More pond water added to jar and more apple vinegar for subsequent pinks; maybe paler...

Pink or magenta must be 'coaxed' carefully from the flowers.  The joy is that the 'fixer' apple vinegar is available from ripe apple peelings in October. If the seeds proliferate, there'll be plenty of pink dye next year.

Amaranth dye liquid separated

Adding modifier to Amaranth dye

I must have got the modifiers mixed up: using Bicarbonate of Soda, silk turned gold in the purple dye. More tests...

A 3rd soak jar behind in image shows the flowers brown, as they were changing from flower to seed, only partly pink. However water has gone purple, so in hope, some more pink stems were added. [the older the plant, the pinker the stems].  This pink seems quite strong.  Amaranth plants are over by November, but keep producing tassels of magenta from July/August to November.

Amaranth Flower dye - first attempt - Testing August

First sample tests were cream yellows.  By September more tassels picked and they are still good, but starting to 'seed'. I made a dye jar in August, left soaking for some weeks with some vinegar and pond water, but only resulted in cream/beige. I added more to it in October and also added some vinegar, which helped get a pink result on Shetland wool.

Amaranth dye jar

Silk in dye jar

Amaranth Coil bundle dyed

Using very long amaranth tassels, result looked promising as the pink went onto the silk, but it didn't fix well and the silk dried to a very pale patchy white-pink.   Maybe if silk was soaked in vinegar first, it would adhere better.  Silk would have been pre soaked in Aluminium Sulphate. [AFTERNOTE: if silk was soaked in apple cider vinegar it would have dyed pink]

Amaranth tassel spiral bundle dyed on Erin

Amaranth wet wool result The wool was tied in a loop for submersion in jar with both the initial August and the additional October Amaranth. Hard to tell if the browny patch was upper or lower, whether vinegar or water caused

Dyed result PINK! Plus Sumac dyed wool

 

Advice from blogs stated use vinegar. I added white wine vinegar to pond water, but yet to try only vinegar.

Two tones pink-mauve and straw in continuous yarn (see the two tones on removal from dye jar): is likely where the vinegar separated from the pond water...

LEFT sample Cream Gold colour is a Sumac flower dyed sample

Amaranth flowers form in July, and get longer and longer through August and by September are very long, when I picked most of mine.

23 Aug

Experiments silk bundle dyes 2024

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4 BUNDLE DYE SESSIONS overlaying different plant material

2024: My first experiments with bundle dye and eco printing.  The mystery of natural plant dyes is intriguing and fun to try many plants to see what happens.  Even white rose petals can produce some shape outline.  Images of multiple steaming into Ahimsa silk which is thicker than Habotai, a bit like cotton. [Ahimsa - peace silk where the silkworm is not boiled].

Flowers arranged on Ahimsa silk:   Mallow - Linaria lilac - Gladioli purple - Bronze Fennel

Parcel covered with clingfilm for steaming. Foil covered, wrapped around large rose tree root which rests over steam pan.  I vary processes: open steaming 2-3 hrs or closed lid in a trivet for an 1.5hr

Linaria was disappointingly brown, as had previously dyed blue on golden Habotai. Possibly a light vinegar spray caused browning.

[One piece mordanted in alum powder; one piece in soya milk.  Soya produced nothing so subsequently washed and soaked in alum for Sessions 2-4]

SESSION 2:  More plant material

Dahlia leaves - Mallow dried and fresh - sprinkled Linaria - Woad seeds - Geranium petals - Gladioli purpurea - 3 Antirrhinums, -1 Nasturtium - white rose petals - 2 Queen Anne's lace - Bronze fennel

Two silk layers [previously mordanted with alum] were sprayed with white vinegar before folding into a parcel. Sometimes I roll fabric up, sometimes I fold; all experimental.  Parcel wrapped tightly around the steaming stick.

Washed dried mediocre result

Washed dried result

Antirrhinums worked the best, and probably too strong a vinegar spray turned them brown, as they have come out violet before.  Gladioli DOES print, if feintly.  All the material left some mark: even the woad seeds were quite dark. Dahlia leaves were surprisingly pure green, not browned ! and well defined: worth pursuing again with an iron modifier.

Small piece of Habotai silk added in the sandwich, to test on thinner silk.

The bronze fennel leaf is promising, as a print or all over texture background: Brown on alum mordanted Ahimsa silk.  On Habotai mordanted silk - turned bright green AFTER washing with soda ash. Useful as an all over landscape texture.

Note:  Fennel may make a good green dye bath with soda ash.

Fennel print comparison Ahimsa or Habotai

SESSION 3:  More plant material overlay experiment

Mallow - Woad Seeds - Bougainvillea - Himalayan Honeysuckle Leycesteria Formosa

Plant material placed over ahimsa pieces

Cling film over both pieces enclosing plants

Rolling up two silks with clingfilm

Ahimsa roll tied up losley in trivet

Variations of steam processes to see if any way works better.  Parcel wrapped in aluminium foil OR clingfilm -

Wrapped, tied on stick in open pan OR tied in a round with steamer lid on.  Silk has previously been burnt slightly when using foil, so still experimenting.

Ahimsa silks after steaming, washed, pressed:  Both pieces are identical.  Pieces will eventually be used in a garment, but not colourful enough at this stage, only interesting as layer on layer experiment.  Identifying multiple colour marks from photo of plant placements.  New blue-violet effects at top (possible from woad seeds); orangey lower blotches from crimson Himalayan honeysuckle.  Bougainvillea show as identifiable triangular grey-brown shapes; so worth pursuing again on pure white, and modify with iron.  Dahlia green prints faded a bit this time.

SESSION 4:  To get some colour!

Hawthorne leaves - Privet - Honeysuckle crimson sepals - White Rose petals - Blackberries.

Blackberries were placed on the rose petals.  Second Ahimsa piece laid over.  Then pastry roller used to squash the dye out.  Due to strength of colour, it could have done several pieces at once.   Rolling out in pattern directions is also an idea, with small rollers, or pre folding fabric to form geometric mirroring.  Much purple dye lost to the backing cloth.

Sponge dabbing spasmodically of water, from woad seed soaking, with added sprinkling of iron sulphate.

Blackberry stains between two Ahimsa silks: sponged with iron water

Rolled with clingfilm tied with twine

Rolled parcel to coil, tie and suspend over trivet in steaming pan. Coil sits on two pieces of Fuscia branch, to prevent metal heat stains. Branches were scraped of bark which was added to the plant material above.

Rolled coiled parcel suspended in trivet in pan

Unrolling silks after steaming

Unrolled steamed silks extensive blackberry dyed

Two Ahimsa silk pieces. Identical dried results with purple where iron water sponged.

Two Ahimsa silk pieces, upside down to each other.  To break up the iron dulled areas, and add interest, circle designs brush drawn-over with lemon juice show discharged LIGHT effect through 'greyed' (iron) background. Lemon brightens blackberry-pink and discharges greyed background to cream.  Silks were previously dyed a light golden colour, so the iron may have interacted with that too.

Close up of one piece with lemon juice discharged circles

Embroidery Resolution

To give some form to the blackberry dyed blotches; triskele design shapes were painted in lemon juice to embroider over.  Abstracted rose petal shapes embroidered over colours.  Overall effect is 'antique'.  This will work with a kimono lining already in stock; with pink colours similar.  Enough for batwing sleeves.  Purple silk can be added, along with other stock prints with pinks.  With the two pieces of ahimsa, enough for each side.  Useful to dye two pieces together if garment making.

31 Oct

Hawthorn Comfrey St Johns Wort wool and silk 2023-24

Amelia Hoskins / Plant Dye, Plant dye processes / / 0 Comments
Hawthorn 'May blossom' in full bloom with rare magenta Salsify (normally yellow) growing up through.

Autumn FORAGING and DYEING TIME using plants in my allotment

Hawthorn - Comfrey - Tutsan St. John's Wort

Hawthorn berries:  the Hawthorn tree has grown considerably since it seeded itself about 5 years ago.  The amount of blossom in May ensured there would be many berries, which turned bright red by August, but by late October when I got to pick them many were gone.  Previous Hawthorn dyeing was from berries near different rivers. can be compared.

Dye bath is not exhausted after three lots of dyeing, so still has potential for multiple dyeing and to produce a good stock of pale gold silk or wool backgrounds, which is very useful for painting on.  It can be modified with iron for duller tones, or sycamore for more russet darker tones.  This time of year sycamore leaves are plentiful on the ground.

COMFREY LEAVES collected

Comfrey leaves are plentiful in summer.  See previous Comfrey dyeing post.  By autumn, three plants had sprouted new leaves after earlier ones had frizzled away from heat and rain.  They soon brown off in winter so I picked a deep basket full of them all.

  • Soak leaves overnight, pressing as many leaves down into large jam pan as possible.
  • Heat to soften and add more as they soften down. (from a large picking).
  • Boil and simmer for some hours, until leaves mushy
  • Remove leaves; cool liquid before adding wool or silk.

Fine wool cloth was dyed first, soaked overnight, without mordant.  Silk was dyed secondarily, soaked from cooled dye bath, and achieved the same ecru colour.  Notice the colour results are identical for wool or silk, whereas with Hawthorn berries, the colour results are different between fine wool and silk.  RESULTS below after 24 hour soakings

 

Lace dress wet from comfrey dye bath.

Third fabric to soak pigment.

It looked green, but dried grey; only appearing 'green' in photographs.

TUTSAN berries, (EURASIAN ST JOHNS WORT) Hypericum androsaemum 

Used for the first time as I had not seen this plant in books.  The berries produce a good light orange gold on silk, without mordanting.

Both black and red berries were soaked overnight, then boiled and simmered, until skins broke and they became soft.  Plant stuff removed and Habotai silk soaked in liquid in slow cooker, on warm for a while, then cooled overnight.

Secondary dye piece of lace summer top: Lace appears to be cotton and soaked up the dye.  After several hours the lining was still whitish, (photo above wet) so presumed polyester; but after 24 hours, it was just about the same colour as the cotton lace, so it may be viscose or silk organdie.  (felt like organdie).   More pigment still visible in dye bath to be used for another piece.  Used berries in photo.

Comparisons below of wet cloths: Tutsan dyed silk (left), and Hawthorne dyed fine wool (right)

Bundle steaming - petals and leaves - on Tutsan dyed silk

Textured antique background for painting over

  1. Laying dried geranium petals, dried daffodils, red antirrhinum petals and other purple flowers, and  on silk.
  2. Wrap around 1 inch wide strip of cardboard; roll around; make into bundle ring and tie with twine.
  3. Suspend bundle over dye bath pan.  Steam for an hour.
  4. RESULT:  'Antique' effect mottled brown and dull pink, with yellow from the daffodils. Motifs repeated in stripes, the width of the cardboard.
  5. Can be tried with any petals and seeds and leaves on any pastel shade to give textured effect.

Images copyright Amelia Jane Hoskins Please email for use permission.