Did you know that your garden, local park and kitchen cabinets are full of natural dyes, just waiting for you to try them out?
Plant based dyes come in all hues, and when applied to raw silk or cotton, can surprise you with their depth of colour.
Different types of dyes: Substantive vs Adjective
Some plant dyes are so strong that they do not need a mordant (fixative) to penetrate the fibre of some fabrics permanently. These are called Substantive dyes.Other plant dyes do need a mordant to help the colours penetrate and bind to the textile’s fibres permanently– these are called Adjective dyes.
For the sake of simplicity, let’s stick with substantive dyes for starters– plant dyes that are so vibrant and strong that they will bind to your textile's fibres and never let go.
Which fabric to use?
If you can, stick with natural fabrics in the rawest form you can access them– raw silk or organic cotton are fantastic, or normal cotton if that’s all you can access.
Types of dyeing:
The two easiest types of dyeing to start with are direct application, where you apply the plant directly to the fabric by rubbing, and simple bath dyeing, where you make up a liquid dye by either steeping, fermenting or boiling the plant material with water, and then add the fabric to that liquid.
Four substantive plant dyes to try:
Turmeric imparts a fabulous bright yellow to orange hue to cloth, depending on the exact variety of plant–either apply the fresh root directly to cloth, or grate and ferment, steep or boil. Powdered turmeric works well do, either applied directly as a paste, or in a dye bath.
Indigo is used for beautiful shades of blue, and can be used as a fresh plant (it’s getting more common in nurseries) or as a powder.
Red Sorrel: here’s a tasty salad green that you’ll never see the same way again! Red sorrel stems are a great substantive dye, imparting a deep red to purple hue.
Pomegranate: either the inner fruit, or the whole fruit including skin, gives a pink to deep red hue through direct application or a bath of fermented or steeped fruit. Over-ripe or rotting pomegranate will impart a deep brown.
Whichever plants you choose: get creative and try out a few different things - direct application with rubbing, applying with a paintbrush, or soaked overnight.
Once you've achieved the colours and designs you want, you can help set these substantive dyes by then soaking them in water that has had rice washed and boiled in it - the rice starch will help set the dyes even stronger.
And at the end, you’ll have a crafted piece of coloured cloth like no other. Good luck!
Milkwood holds regular Natural Dyeing courses with textile artist Samorn Sanixay in Sydney.
Photography Samorn Sanixay