Natural Dyes and Fabrics

Lately, I've completely fallen in love with natural dyeing, especially working with silk and wool. As I'm preparing for a new handwork position this fall, I've been practicing many of the projects we'll be doing in the classroom while also experimenting with different natural dye materials at home. Along the way, I've learned that natural dyeing is full of surprises. The same dye bath can produce completely different colors depending on the fiber, the weave of the fabric, the temperature of the dye bath, and even the water you're using. One of my favorite experiments has been dyeing with rosemary. Both the wool and silk turned a beautiful chartreuse green, although the wool and silk each expressed the color a little differently. I also dyed silk and wool with avocado pits and avocado skins. Even though they came from the same dye bath, the different silk fabrics produced noticeably different colors. One silk scarf leaned toward soft pinks while another developed much warmer brown tones. It reminded me that every natural fiber has its own personality, and that's one of the things I enjoy most about natural dyeing. I also experimented with madder root and black beans. One of my silk scarves had previously been lightly dyed with leftover madder root before being placed into the avocado dye bath, which affected the final color. I'm planning to revisit several of these dye baths because I think additional heat and longer dyeing times will produce even richer colors. For the avocado dye, I tried both a hot dye bath and several days of cold dyeing in the refrigerator. While the cold soak was interesting, I suspect the heat plays a much bigger role in developing those beautiful pink tones. Finding affordable undyed silk became the next challenge. Silk yardage and scarves can be surprisingly expensive, so I began looking for wholesale suppliers. I purchased a large collection of lightweight silk scarves that will be used both for classroom projects and for continued dy