Natural dyeing includes dye sources from five sources; plants, lichens, fungi, insects and minerals. All of which I’m hoping to explore in this blog over time.

The dye process itself generally has five basic steps:

1. Designing the scale and colours of your project and sources those materials.

2. Scouring your fiber to cleanse it of oils and debris that might inhibit an even dye absoption

3. Mordanting (see below)

4. Processing your fiber with your dye materials.

5. Rinsing everything and hanging to dry.

   Note: there are many dye processes which don’t follow these steps or else only follow some. For example, fermented lichens or a chemical reduction dye vat for indigo.

Acronyms:

% WOF: This refers to the ‘Percent Weight of Fiber’. For example, if I mordant with alum at 16% WOF for 100 grams of wool, I’ve dissolved 16 grams of alum into water to mordant the wool.

General Dyeing Tips

• The real key of dyeing is patience. Take the three main components; scouring, mordanting and dyeing as three separate steps. Some days you only complete one step- the end results will be worth it.

• In dyeing (scouring, mordanting, dyeing, washing) the following things will determine your colour and intensity (listed roughly in order): materials, timing, pH and heat. Ignore any of these at your peril.

• Always keep your fiber wet once you've started this process unless you're planning on storing the fiber before completing the process. Keeping the fiber submerged will help give you even dye results.

• You'll also need to pay attention to temperature. Dramatic temperature changes can felt your fiber: especially if it's single-ply wool. Use thermoregular bridges between each step (allow baths to cool on their own before moving fiber and use the tap to gently heat up the fiber). Sometimes dyeing plied wool can lull you into a false sense of security that felting (by not adequately controling tempertature) is someone else's problem...

• Controlling your pH is very important for dyeing with madder, lichens and cochineal. Creating a more basic dyebath will bring out the richer, bluer pinks and purples (you can even get a purply/red from madder this way). Do not do this with baking soda as it binds up the dye-pigment molecules. Controlling the pH means determining the pH of the dye vat AND the water the fiber is sitting in prior to adding it to the dye vat. Do not change the pH once the fiber is in the dye bath- this will give you uneven results.

• Owning a niddy-noddy, ball-winder and swift will make your life with fiber a lot more enjoyable. If you love to dye and weave think about getting this equipment if you don't have it. I can't believe I struggled so long without these key pieces of equipment.

• Be careful when working with these substances. Use gloves and kitchens with good ventilations. As long as the materials are not too toxic (I don't use chrome as a mordant due to environmental concerns), you won't need a respirator but use common sense.

• When overdyeing, dye first with the lighter colour and then check the overdyeing frequently to get the colour you want. When overdyeing with indigo (to get Saxon green), you only need to submerge the fiber for about 7 seconds. Then open up the fiber and leave for several hours to even out the tone before washing.

• Branching out and dyeing with as many different types of plant and animal matter as possible will help make you a better dyer and helps keep things interesting.

• Lastly, keeping a dye record is a nice way of keeping track of what your dyeing, learning and how your developing as a dyer. I write down notes as I go and then write it up on single pages with samples which I keep in page protectors in a binder. See photo on the right for a record sample. You may want to keep a small sample of predyed fiber as a comparison. I also keep records when the dye processes doesn't work.