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PREPARING PLANT FIBRES FOR NATURAL DYEING

January 30, 2024 • Claudia Gosse • All Blog Posts • Natural Dyeing • Sustainable Textiles

INTRODUCTION The success of your natural dyeing project will depend on how well the fibres are prepared. To get rewarding and even dye results it’s necessary for fibres to be clean and free of any impurities, such as the sizings used in the manufacturing process. This cleaning is known as ‘scouring’, which sounds a little drastic but really just means washing thoroughly. NB: you can only dye 100% natural fibres with natural dyes. Synthetic and mixed fibres will not respond well to natural...

NATURAL DYEING WITH ACORNS

November 22, 2023 • Claudia Gosse • All Blog Posts • Natural Dyeing • Sustainable Textiles

Learn how to naturally dye with foraged acorns. This informative blog will give you a fascinating insight into the history of oak trees and how embedded they are in our culture. You will learn how to extract colour from acorns to use as a natural dye on both animal and plant fibres. From foraging and processing to dyeing and modifying to extend the colour range.

NATURALLY DYEING WITH DYER’S COREOPSIS (Coreopsis tinctoria)

August 26, 2023 • Claudia Gosse • All Blog Posts • Natural Dyeing • Sustainable Textiles

Coreopsis tinctoria is one of over 75 species in the family Asteraceae. Originally native to the prairies of North America it is now cultivated world-wide and comes in a range of yellows and reds or, like Coreopsis tinctoria, yellow with red centres. As the word ‘tinctoria’ indicates this is a recognised dye plant and although historical reference to it is limited, it is known to have been used as a source of natural dye by the plains tribes of North America. It’s also thought to have been used by the early civilisations of Central and South America. Sometimes called ‘tickseed’, a reference to its insect-like seeds, the plant was reportedly used in bedding to ward off bedbugs.

NATURAL DYEING WITH COMFREY (Symphytum officinale)

July 31, 2023 • Claudia Gosse • All Blog Posts • Natural Dyeing • Sustainable Textiles

Comfrey leaves can be foraged for dyeing throughout the summer, and I didn’t have to go far to gather a basketful. I wanted enough leaves to dye my fibres at 200% WOF (weight of fibre). So as I planned to dye 100g of fibres I needed 200g of comfrey leaves, which I then left outside for a couple of hours to give the insect life a chance to depart.

NATURAL DYEING WITH STINGING NETTLES (Urtica dioica)

June 29, 2023 • Claudia Gosse • All Blog Posts • Natural Dyeing • Sustainable Textiles

My interest in nettles is, of course, as a dye plant and I was interested to learn that during World War II children were encouraged to collect nettles for the production of a dark green dye for camouflage material.

You can forage for nettles throughout the summer, but it’s preferable to gather them in the spring when they are still fresh and bright green. These nettles were gathered in early June when some were beginning to flower.

PREPARING PLANT FIBRES FOR NATURAL DYEING

NATURAL DYEING WITH ACORNS

NATURALLY DYEING WITH DYER’S COREOPSIS (Coreopsis tinctoria)

NATURAL DYEING WITH COMFREY (Symphytum officinale)

NATURAL DYEING WITH STINGING NETTLES (Urtica dioica)

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