Textile Dyeing

Simple plant dye recipes give the ideal start to be able to make your own dyed textiles.

Many natural color shades can be achieved with the type, duration and intensity of the mordanting and dyeing process.

> Plant Dyeing

Indigo is a plant-derived pigment. It is a vat dye and requires a special process when dyeing textiles.
Air-drying helps develop the typical indigo blue hue (oxidation). Indigo dyeing does not require additional scouring of textiles.

> Dyeing with Indigo

For thousands of years, barks, leaves, fruits, lichens or roots have formed the raw material for a wide variety of dyes.
These original raw materials result in a natural variety of colors.

Textile dyes have a reactive group that forms a chemical bond with the cellulose fiber. This results in good lightfastness.

These dyes are readily soluble in most solvents. They are very brilliant and have good stability.

The purpose of mordanting textile materials is to ensure that the dye remains fixed and the dyeing does not fade. Appropriate pickling can improve the washfastness and lightfastness of the dyeing material.

The textile material to be dyed should be washed as hot as possible. Cleaning the pots works best with citric acid.

A selection of specialist books provide basic knowledge on dyeing with plants and dyes. Recipes and application instructions provide practical tips.