Dyeing of textiles
Practical Action
These chemical mordants are usually obtained from specialist suppliers or from chemists.
Where this is prohibitive, due to location or cost, natural mordants can be used. There are a
number of plants and minerals which will yield a suitable mordant, but their availability will
be dependent upon your surroundings. Some common substitutes for a selection of
mordants are listed below.
Some plants, such as mosses and tea, contain a small amount of aluminium. This can
be used as a substitute to alum. It is difficult to know, however, how much aluminium
will be present and experimentation may be necessary.
Iron water can be used as a substitute to ferrous sulphate. This can be made simply by
adding some rusty nails and a cupful of vinegar to a bucket-full of water and allowing
the mixture to sit for a couple of weeks.
Oak galls or sumach leaves can be used a substitute to tannic acid.
Rhubarb leaves contain oxalic acid.
Natural dyestuffs
Dyestuffs and dyeing are as old as textiles
themselves. Nature provides a wealth of
plants which will yield their colour for the
purpose of dyeing, many having been used
since antiquity. In this section we will look at
some of these naturally occurring dyes, their
source and the colours they produce. Later in
the brief we will look at the application of the
dyes to textiles.
Almost any organic material will produce a
colour when boiled in a dye-bath, but only
certain plants will yield a colour that will act
as a dye. The plants given in Table 1 are a
selection of plants that have stood the test of
time, and are used widely and traditionally by
natural dyers. Natural dyes fall into the
following categories:
Leaves and stems
Twigs and prunings
Flower heads
Barks
Roots
Outer skins, hulls and husks
Heartwoods and wood shavings
Berries and seeds
Lichens
Insect dyes
Figure 2: Marigold
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