Mastodawn

And yeah, I've seen urine used for various purposes, but not as a dye mordant... Not for the squeamish!

20 Natural Dye Plants You Can Forage and Grow in Your Garden

By Catherine Winter

Excerpt: "Would you prefer to go a super-natural route, since you’re using plant-based dyes? If you’re aiming to be as self-sufficient as possible, there are also all-organic mordant options as well.

Natural Mordants:

- Sumac: Simmer fresh sumac twigs for about an hour, strain out the twiggy bits, and reduce the liquid by half
- Urine: human urine is ideal for mordanting, but you’ll need to age it. Collect it in a jar and allow it to age for several days. [🤢 ]
- Salt: You can use standard table salt as a mordant, but Kosher salt can yield some of the strongest color-fastness. [I've used that]
- Vinegar [That too]
- Wood ash lye

"You’ve probably noticed that some of these are alkaline, and some are acidic. Alkaline mordants tend to work best with plant-based fibers like cotton, linen, and #hemp. In contrast, acidic mordants like vinegar are better with animal fibers like #wool, #alpaca, and #angora.

"Note that if you use an acidic mordant and your colors still run, you can set the color by dipping the fabric in a 50/50 vinegar/water solution. In contrast, if you’ve used an alkaline mordant like lye or baking soda [another one I've used], an acidic solution will strip the color rather than setting it." [Been there, done that!]

Learn more [includes a list of #DyePlants -- does not include #BlackWalnuts though]:
https://morningchores.com/dye-plants/

#SolarPunkSunday #DIY #FiberArts #NaturalDyes #Gardening #Foraging #Goldenrod #Elderberries #Chicory #Beets #Onions #RedCabbage

20 Natural Dye Plants You Can Forage and Grow in Your Garden

If you're interested in spinning your own fibers, you may be interested in foraging and growing dye plants to color them as well.

Morning Chores

Violet Madder Sep 20

I wanna find alkanet plants!! But you need like 30+ of them to pollinate properly and keep getting viable seed. Hard to find, lots of mis-identified/fake stuff but one of these days...

Depending on pH it goes from bright red to cobalt blue to lovely purple.

Climate Jenny 2.1 Sep 20

@violetmadder @DoomsdaysCW Great article. It’s easy for me to get sumac (and, at the moment, goldenrod as well) so I may try this on some boring old sheets.

DoomsdaysCW Sep 20

@violetmadder True story, I managed to find both alkanet seeds and rose madder seeds for #StrictlyMedicinals. Unfortunately, the alkanet died off (no pun intended), but the rose madder has taken over the fence near our black walnut tree (I'll have to move it further away, though it seems to be moving all over). Anyhow, we used to use dried alkanet root powder (obtained commercially) in our lavender soap. I loved watching it change color as it changed pH! One of these days, maybe I'll harvest some rose madder (maybe when I'm transplanting it) -- but I enjoy watching it grow!

DoomsdaysCW Sep 20

@violetmadder I've bought seeds from #StrictlyMedicinals for many years now. Unfortunately, this is NOT the dye alkanet. Maybe they don't carry it anymore. 😞

https://strictlymedicinalseeds.com/?s=alkanet&post_type=product&title=1&excerpt=1&content=1&categories=1&attributes=1&tags=1&sku=1&ixwps=1

Search Results for “alkanet” | Strictly Medicinal Seeds

DoomsdaysCW Sep 20

@violetmadder And they no longer carry rose madder. Darn! They do have other dye plants though.

Violet Madder Sep 21

Yeah the species is Alkanna tinctoria, and it's hard to find even though the root is farmed in big amounts and you can get the powdered root pretty cheap.

DoomsdaysCW Sep 21

@violetmadder Ugh. I'll keep my eye out for it. Too bad Strictly doesn't carry them anymore. They used to carry a lot of rare stuff (and still do), but some things have disappeared from the catalogue.

DoomsdaysCW Sep 21

@violetmadder So yeah, that was where I got the Alkanna tinctoria seeds (it's the one with blue flowers, not yellow). There's a blog post about the plants dying off. 😢

https://blog.strictlymedicinalseeds.com/true-alkanet-the-saga/

True Alkanet — The Saga

Alkanet roots are rich in alkannin Before me stood two test-tubes, one full of olive oil, the other containing pure grain alcohol. I dropped a fragment of Alkanet (Alkanna tinctoria) root int…

Richo's Blog

Violet Madder Sep 21

Yeah I went really digging (back when internet searches still worked) but have since lost the bookmark from the blog I found that talked about the pollination requirements.

DoomsdaysCW Sep 21

@violetmadder Interesting. Mine was doing well for a while, but might have gotten nibbled by squirrels. And the bees loved it! I found a possible seed source on Etsy. I may have to try to grow more next year.

Violet Madder Sep 21

Strictly Medicinal's old page for the plant said they think they need at least 24 individuals to establish a viable population, and they were asking for tips from anyone with a source but I guess they haven't gotten more since.

Georgiana Brummell Sep 20

@DoomsdaysCW I actually heard of using urine in dying in Gathering Blue by Lois Lowery. One of the characters does it.

DoomsdaysCW Sep 20

@dandylover1 Oh, I'm pretty sure I saw it used on Tudor Monastery Farm. One the one hand, I know urine has lots of uses. On the other hand, ewwww! lol

DB Schwein Sep 21

I learned about the human urine thing from reading Elfquest comics! One of the elves made leathers and would bury them in patches near a human settlement in places they were known to pee.
It was such an interesting fact to learn in such an odd place!

BrambleBearGrrrauling Sep 21

Seacolors Yarnery in Washington, Maine uses seawater to mordant, and natural dyes, on regeneratively grown Polworth sheep wool. She has a solar hot water system too. Whole farm process is very cool.

https://getwool.com/meadowcroft/

BrambleBearGrrrauling Sep 21

@DoomsdaysCW Maybe someone in FiberShed or a local affiliate might know where to get some. Will look.

https://fibershed.org/

https://mainefibershed.com/

https://nnefibershed.com/

Or in Maine maybe https://junctiongardenme.square.site/

Home - Fibershed

We develop regional fiber systems that build soil & protect the health of our biosphere.

Fibershed