Oooohhh - most mordants have an acidic effect but I haven’t done a pH test strip yet. <adds it to the list>

@@WildcraftDyeing let me know! I will most probably be using alder cones or leaves, for a costume design soon

Yes! So happy to hear you’re experimenting with it because I love it! The instructions say something like “will go orange when tannins are present” but in my experience you either get the orange (so say with alders, arbutus bark, etc), or it gives a lovely deep maroon (say with fresh English leaves or buckthorn leaves). Clearly there is something going on but not sure what yet!

Yay! I have a fan!!! 🤣

oooh - good tips! Hmm, if the pH shift can change that much in terms of the colours, it's usually a sign of the dye being in the unstable anthrocyanin group (think like lupin flowers, red cabbage, etc.). But it could also be that your friend is using a few different mordants. I've been playing around with a new one (titanium oxolate) and getting some incredible colours! Are you fermenting dock roots in ammonia to get pink?? What is this sorcery!? I must know more! Please report back and let me know. Maybe I need to do a redo on the dock seeds (which isn't bad timing as they should be ready to go by August). Thanks so much - I'm super curious!

@@WildcraftDyeing yes, I will for sure report back!! Yes, ammonia with the root to get a pink but if brought into sunlight while still wet, can turn blue. Think “sunburst lichen”. So, that’s what I’m hoping for! And you are correct about the mordants with the seeds. Not just ph but also mordant and now I can’t remember what she said. Darn. I’ll have to think more when it’s not so late. But the dye is supposedly very stable. Have fun!!

@@WildcraftDyeing​​⁠so, I dyed the roots on an unmordanted cotton and it turned a bright pink. I brought it out into the sun and it definitely started turning blue. I left it out there for an hour or so, and when I came back out, the color had been bleached out. Definitely needs more experimenting and will try with mordants. But, it was in fact a very bright pink (not really my color) and it definitely was shifting to blue.

@marninegley how interesting! I know some plant materials will dye pink on cotton but green or yellow on wool (hollyhock blossoms are a good example). What you’re describing in terms of instability of colour sounds like the chemistry is in the anthrocyanin group (which don’t tend to be very stable) but the photosensitive part of turning pink to blue is unusual. Really want to learn about this!

@@WildcraftDyeing but as far as I understand it, the roots have been used for dyeing for a very long time. Definitely more research and experimenting to do!!

Dyers Polypore is a very concentrated mushroom - you should be able to get more colour from it for sure. I’m so happy you are dyeing with mushrooms! 🍄‍🟫 ❤️

You can - so just be very careful with temperature changes. You want to heat slowly and then let cool over night. Temperature changes can make the roving felt and hard to spin. Also don’t want to dye yarn and roving at the same time in the same pot (ask me how I know… 🙄). The roving will often look paler than yarn but should darken as it spun. Would love to see photos if possible when you do it!

So the good news is that east coast does have a master mushroom dyer named Susan Hopkins (there is a photo of her in this video). She’s fantastic and will be able to address your question down to specific species in more specific regions than I can. But in general, you are going to want to focus on some of the Cortinarius mushrooms like C. Smithii, C. Semisanguinius and whichever one of these is nearest to your foraging area. For blues, you’ll want to do a pH boost and try mushrooms in the Thelephoroid clade. You can use exactly the same approach as the one I used in this video. I also know mushroom master dyer Julie Beeler was out at the folk school in North Carolina teaching last October so she would also be a good lead for you. Good luck!!! 🤞

Wow!!! You are life goals! This all sounds amazing. I’ve never even come close to a red from Coreopsis. What’s your secret? Is it the specific strain? So cool!

@@WildcraftDyeing I just got the specific strain loooooooool. haven't had it long enough to get a harvest. it came from Hudson Valley Seed Company, which also sells Japanese Indigo seeds. You'll know you've found them when they sell "art packs" aka different painting seed packets, each a print of a work of art themed around that plant. I'm not an expert, just driven. I've been experimenting with washing soda in my dyes. I got a rusty red orange and a bunch of pinks from sweet woodruff roots by the way. I used too much salt on the second exhaust and it shifted from fading peachy pinks to that rusty red orange color. Never seen anything like it. Woodruff is in the same family as madder btw. Gather older roots for more dye.

@AnimeShinigami13 interesting! Is sweet woodruff related to common bedstraw/cleavers/Galium aparine? That’s also related to madder but gives reds into the coral pinks. 🤔

No problem! My (new) advice for reds is to order the mordant - titanium oxalate. It’s a little pricey but it as no toxicity as alum and anything with tannins present will either go a bright copper orange or deep red/maroon. Even things like fresh oak leaves will give you a brilliant and stable red with titanium. Give it a try - it’s been a game changer for me. I realize reading this, it sounds like I’m a salesperson for this mordant. I’m not, I just think it’s been a totally new and easy way to get reds from common backyard tree trimmings.

@@WildcraftDyeing I'll think about it. I try to use lower concentrations of chemicals. My general rule of thumb is if I can't handle it with my bare hands, I don't use it. one of the things I like is to use iron supplements for iron mordant, make makeshift copper mordant with vinegar and a copper kettle, and alum from the spices section of the local walmart. (it used to be used in bread for some awful *censored* reason, please don't eat alum ppl!)

@AnimeShinigami13 totally get it. Oddly enough titanium oxalate is about as safe to use as alum. It’s approved by the FDA as a good additive to white things like fondant and toothpaste. It’s also not something any one should just eat but it’s about as safe as alum and iron. As opposed to tin and chrome and such. Maybe something worth checking out anyway, I definitely agree with the chemical exposure concerns.

@@WildcraftDyeing Technically, alum should NOT be approved for human consumption. But it was widely used as a food additive in victorian times, sometimes used to adulterate bread flour so much it caused compacted intestines in children. True the concentrations were massive. When I was a teenager my father worked at Bayer Pharma, and he would talk about the drug approval process at the dinner table. Add in the story of Thalidimide and I would hesitate to fully trust the FDA, especially since the previous president did his damnedest to gut regulatory agencies and stigmatize business regulation. I discovered something very interesting. I got cordage material and some very pliable fibers from a piece of rotted sanseveria houseplant at a local doctor's office. Sanseveria is also called "snake plant" and is pretty much ubiquitous across the country. The material resembled a piece from a very bad quality dirty blonde wig. It plied up into very fine cordage with a reverse wrap process. If it matters, my muscle memory is conditioned to use Z twist.

Good to know! It’s so hard to dial into the exact colour with this dye.

Hey - awesome! No that sounds good. FYI - I tried out a new mordant (titanium oxalate) on dyers Polypore recently and got a bright copper orange. This dye source is so amazing and stores so well. Yay!

I'm a novice at foraging, found a ganoderma tsugae a few years ago, dried it, kept it for a while before I learned what it was, what to do with it. That got me interested in foraging mushrooms. Amazing what can be done with them, in addition to eating them.

@landrymd totally agree! Mushroom hunting is so much fun. I also find that foraging for dye mushrooms is a lot less stressful than food mushrooms (at worse you don’t get the colours you want). :D

Oh interesting!!! I wasn’t sure what it was. That makes sense!

It’s going to depend on the colours you’re after in terms of the mordants and ratio of bark to fiber. If you can find a downed cedar, you can harvest the bark without fear of harming the tree to experiment with.

This sounds amazing! I’m also a believer in creating magical colours from meaningful places. Very exciting! :)

Will do! Are you on Vancouver island?

@@WildcraftDyeing Thanks, not on Vancouver Island.

@uoohknk6881 coolio - I’m up to travelling to teach if there was interest! Just need a place with tables and a sink. :)

@@WildcraftDyeing Cool. I will think about it.

Haha, this short must seem so random. I harvest them for natural dyeing: How to Dye with Coreopsis I Tickseed I Calliopsis @WildcraftDyeing kzbin.info/www/bejne/j3qZkqiYosZ7pas

Yes! There’s a whole rich history of it as a traditional food source. I’m such a chicken when it comes to covering the edibility of dye sources. :)

Right??? Love them so much!!!

Nice! I picked it up on Amazon.ca. People use in gardens as a slug deterrent. But I’ve set up a jar of copper sulphate solution that I just reuse so it doesn’t go down the sink. I’m just starting work on a comprehensive mordant video. So plan is to do a deeper dive into copper there.

@@WildcraftDyeing awesome! Will keep an eye out for that video. Thanks!

@@WildcraftDyeing is copper sulfate pentahydrate, the same thing?

@marninegley ok! So copper sulfate (CuSO4) forms hydrates where oxygen becomes bonded to the sulfur. Copper sulfate pentahydrate (CuSO4•5H2O) is the most common/commercial form of copper sulfate and comes in a blue crystal powder.

@@WildcraftDyeing awesome. Thank you so much!

Thank you complete stranger who I definitely do not teach collaborative natural dye workshops with! Haha 🤣

I responded and then realized I misread your question I don’t know - here’s the link for the place I order it from. They should have info on that question: Looks like the answer is very much a yes: maiwa.com/collections/titanium-oxalate

@@WildcraftDyeing Thanks, I'm keen to check it out.

Hi! Thank you so much! It’s so lovely to hear you enjoyed it. The titanium oxalate can be treated pretty much exactly like alum and is not harsh on wools like the ferrous sulphate. Probably the biggest drawback is that it is more expensive than alum. I’ve used it with fresh English oak leaves and got a deep (and stable) maroon - I’m really excited to see what else I can get. Dandelion heads is next! I have not gotten into alum triformate yet but I do hear really good things. If you are on Facebook, there’s an excellent dye group “Natural Dye Education” which has a high bar in terms of sharing accurate chemical analysis of dyeing. Let me know if you have any thoughts or insights into using it! The cold soak approach is super interesting for sure. I’ve been tempted to try it!

@@WildcraftDyeing Hi, I'm sure I already replied to this, but it's not showing, so will try remember what I said! I'm suuuuper intrigued by the PTO, maroon with oak leaves?! how exciting! Will open up such a range of shades to explore :) Thank you for the info! Have requested to join the Facebook group you suggested, thank you! :) I am also going to look into triformate more, botanical colors did a video with Q&A about it, which I will watch today :) I already cold mordant for 7 days with alum, but cold mordant in 24 hours would be great too, if it provides similar or interesting results! Thank you as always :) xxx

@locomademoiselle I love that you remember about the fresh oak leaves!!! I got a deep maroon - did I mention that in a comment somewhere?? I don’t think I put it in a video. I was out yesterday and collected alder cones and catkins. What will titanium oxalate do to alder reproductive parts?? So many questions! 🤣

@@WildcraftDyeing Yes you commented in this thread a couple of days ago hehe :) I think 1 or 2 comments disappeared though :/ do you think you will do a video about some of your experiments with PTO? hopefully the alder cones and catkins will give some orangey browns?! exciting! I did a bit more reading about PTO and ATriformate and the info sounds a bit more concerning about disposal but mostly on large scale. It seems pretty impossible to get any ATriformate in the UK unfortunately :( Love to hear more from your experimennts! xx

Hello! Just to check - do you mean fabric or the yarn? I would suggest leaving fiber in overnight to cool down.

Awesome to hear!

Awesome! So glad to hear this. Let me know how it goes. All the colours! :)

Hey! Apologies on not responding soon - I just got the notice. In general, I find the colours from dried plants and lichens to not be as bright (mushrooms seem to do better) but I also think it depends on how long, which lichen and your approach. Are you going for Boiled Water Method or Ammonia Method? See the book “lichen dyeing: the new source book” if you need any more info on those terms. I say go for it! Keep me posted. :)

Yay!!! Lovely to hear - I hope it helps inspire you to dye! If you’re on FB, there’s a great mushroom dye group (Mushroom and Lichen Dyers United). Lots more great info! :)

You are my people! My inner textile nerd salutes your inner textile nerd. 💕 😂

Good questions - it’s been my experience that both pure aluminum and aluminium alloy pots provide essentially identical results (though I could see an alloy which uses high amounts of iron, copper, tin or titanium could shift that). The biggest issue to avoid is dyeing in iron pots (including enameled canning pots) as these will dramatically shift colours darker or can lead to splotchy and uneven results. Personally, I use large aluminum pots and standard aluminum alloy pots and find the results identical. Does this help? Let me know if I haven’t addressed any aspect of your question.

@@WildcraftDyeing excellent answer. Thanks for taking the time.

My pleasure! :)

I used hot water from the tap.

@@WildcraftDyeing Thank you. I'm also dyeing the bark for an indigenous artist, but this is the first time I have worked with dye. I did some bark after watching your video, my first mistake, I used cold water. I used one cup of salt and one teaspoon of soap. But even after rinsing, the dye still runs to a degree. I'm also using a lot thinner strips of bark than in your video., it is being used as twine on cedar hats. I am using Red and Black dye.

@philiprussell1548 hmm… maybe leave it for a good soak? RIT/acid dyes should absorb fairly well and run pretty clear. Hope it works out!

This is a good question but as it stands, this information isn’t available publicly. Hopefully one day!

Sounds great! Fingers crossed for great colours - keep me posted! :)

​@@WildcraftDyeing Sadly it didn't turn out as I hoped. The yarn is a pale sandy orange, you could maybe imagine pink if you squint really hard haha. Not sure what I did wrong. I used 400% WOF. I used wood ash to turn the pH to about 10. Unlike with yours the overnight soak didn't really bring out the colour at all. The colour came out more when I heated the water but the bath didn't seem as dark as yours. Maybe my bark is different from yours? I'm pretty sure I used the right part of the bark. Oh well it was a good experiment anyway, you can't get them all perfect the first time!

It’s a good question and this cedar was used the next day but you should be able to dry it and store it until you’re ready to use it. The colour is very stable so as long as it doesn’t stay wet and get moldy, you should be good to store for at least a year. But I’m also not an expert on long term storage of cedar after dyeing with RIT so you may want to get a second opinion. I generally just do the dyeing and then pass it back to the weavers.

Totally agree - the music in this video is like green lantern to Ryan Reynolds. We both wish we could go back and do better. (It was embedded in the upload so can’t switch it off).

Hey! I have read that on the Mushroom and Lichen Dyers United FB group but I haven’t done it myself so I didn’t include it in the video. Plus I’m not sure about how much I want to promote the use of tin as a mordant given the extensive safety protocols for mordanting, disposal and storage. I have been experimenting with titanium oxide as a mordant and a super impressed with the deep maroons you get from tannins. Maybe I’ll do some experimenting with tin when it warms up more and I can mordant with it outside. But good point! I was very intrigued by the photos the dyer was posting.

Titanium oxide is new to me, I will have to try that out:-) And it is true as you say that the tin mordant is toxic, it can penetrate through the skin so one must use gloves and dispose of the water according to the regulations. Personally I find the aluminum mordanted red more beautiful, but if bright red is wanted, you can get it with tin.

No, that’s totally fair. I’ve thought about experimenting more with tin where I save and store the mordanting solution and recharge when needed. I think at some point I’ll need to do more experimenting with mushroom dyes and different mordants. I keep thinking I’ll get bored of natural dyes but there’s always more to explore. 💕

Terrible to admit but haven’t pulled the trigger! I have it here, I have the medieval windlass and the silk. What am I waiting for?? Nothing! I think I got caught up in wanting to add production value but just need to do it.

Hey! Sorry for delay in responding. Spring time is crazy for field work. I have not tried lichen dyeing using a food processor but given how important surface area is for getting good colours, I think it could be a really good idea to test out. I live in BC where lungwort can be very plentiful so collecting after a storm isn’t an issue. It’s rarer in some areas so just be careful that way. You don’t need a mordant so you should be able to process, spin and scour the fleece and heat with the lungwort. If you experiment with a food processor, let me know! :)

The videos are shot on my iPhone which often completely washes out rich reds, orange and yellow tones. You can really see it on the video I did on lupin. Stills are easier to correct to the truer colour. If I keep going, it would be good to get a proper set up with equipment that can capture the colours better in the videos. Good question!

Oooh! That’s a great idea. I have not. I agree these are a total pain in the butt to collect. It’s more for small amounts of fiber for accents on larger fiber projects. Interesting idea to ecoprint!!!

@@WildcraftDyeing Yes, you mentioned it in the video and now I know I underestimated the process ahahah. I truly love It anyway for the purpose of research as I only began dyeing last year. Thank you for your answer!

I’m here - let me know if you have any more questions. :)

I actually tried ecoprinting with small madder roots and the results are amazing!! I will try and send you a photo on Instagram

@@nuremartinelli6741 I can’t believe how amazing it looks!!! Thank you so much for sending the pictures along. Did you mordant with aluminum first? 🤔

Thank you so much! I really appreciate the positivity and encouragement. It’s so lovely of you. 💕