What can natural dyes dye? Anything made with natural fibres such as wool, silk, cotton, flax, hemp, ramie, or abaca (banana stalk fibre), rope, wood, bone, hair and eggs. Natural dyes generally have little affinity for most synthetic yarns, nylon sometimes being an exception. Natural dyes are for artisans wanting to create their own unique colour palette, whether they felt, spin, knit, embroider, quilt, print on textiles, design clothes, make basketry, paper, bags, rugs, tapestries, fibre arts, or create jewellery from bone and wood. Textile conservators also use natural dyes when duplicating colours from the past for restoration purposes.Creating colours with natural dyes, much like cooking, is an alchemical process. Timing, temperature and ingredients, and in what order these ingredients are added, all affect the final colour. Coming up with new dye recipes to reveal hidden pigments can become rather absorbing. A recent discovery came from simmering green leaves that dyed silk yarns not green but beige, which then after a quick dip in wood ash and water, transformed the yarns into a screamingly bright yellow! Exciting and unexpected results like these await anyone wanting to make natural dyed colours.

An added challenge is to create colourfast recipes. It’s always disappointing to produce a beautiful colour only to find that it quickly fades or washes away. But, as I have found out, it can be done. This challenge of creating new dye recipes that are colourfast continues; it is exciting and inspiring each time a new colour emerges from the dye bath; and a joy when it proves to be colourfast! Over the years I’ve also discovered that many of the dye colours I’ve developed actually deepen after long exposure to sunlight. A combination of precise experimentation, traditional knowledge, creative insights and serendipitous discoveries continually adds to the enjoyment of making natural dyes.

These photos show just a few of the many colours I have developed over the years.