Natural Dye Color Chart

These are the most popular, fastest dyes available for natural dyeing, and the colors you can expect with the different mordants.

Alum Tin Chrome Iron Copper Indigo blue - no mordant needed Cochineal crimson scarlet lavender to violet gray-violet to black - Brazilwood Xmas red to garnet pink deep maroon off-black - Logwood blue-violet purple blue-black silver, gray, black gray Fustic yellow aurora (yellow-orange) gold soft green soft green Madder brick red bright orange burgandy off-black - Weld yellow cool lemon yellow rich yellow sage soft green Catechu yellow-brown - red-brown brown-black medium brown

• Iron is often used to modify other colors. By itself it mostly results in shades of gray, but in as an after-dye application it can modify your colors. See How To Use Natural Dyes for more information.
• Cream of Tartar can be used with tin to protect the fiber, and with other combinations for special effects.
• Oxalic Acid can be used to balance your tones if your water is alkaline.
• Catechu requires a small amount of copper to be used with all the other mordants.
• If no color is indicated on the above chart it means either that:
  • It yielded a color I didn't particularly like or was unexciting.
  • It yielded a color that could be better attained with some other combination.
  • I just haven't experimented with that combination much. (ie I don't work with copper much).
  BUT, I encourage you to play around with these yourself, because you may find a color that really works for you. Natural dyeing is not an exact science and color preferences are a matter of taste.

• How To Use Natural Dyes - Full Tutorial
• Dyeing with Indigo
• Dyeing with Logwood
• Fabric Painting with Natural Dye Extracts
• Fabric Painting with Indigo Crystals

For more detailed dyeing recipes, read Brilliant Colors! by Cheryl Kolander.