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 |
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- 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.
Specific Directions:
For more detailed dyeing recipes, read Brilliant Colors! by Cheryl Kolander.
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