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i remember a conversatin on here about vegetable dyes and the various mordants. i can remember borax being used for something but i cant remember exactly what. i got a bashed box of borax from wilko's for half price and would love to try some vegetable dyes....


am i better off going with what i know and using vinegar as a mordant?! or... wee?
should the vinegar/wee be warm?
i am a dying n00b.....

It depends, Mrs F! What material are you planning to dye? My experience is limited, but I was taught to use alum and cream of tartar for wool or silk and alum with just a pinch of caustic soda for cotton, but I am sure there are other ways.

This has some good info

http://www.pioneerthinking.com/naturaldyes.html

You can use different mordants to produce several colours from each vegetable dye.

I had a go at dip-dyeing some arran wool with beetroot - used alum which gave an apricot colour and then added vinegar which gave a more salmony pink.

Ah, dye! I thought someone was dying, as in giving up the ghost. Phew, Im relieved.

It's easy to get confused sometimes.

Jandra from the Netherlands

Jandra wrote:Ah, dye! I thought someone was dying, as in giving up the ghost. Phew, Im relieved.

It's easy to get confused sometimes.

Jandra from the Netherlands

I thought the same

So did I, so I have added the E.

Berti knows about dyeing and mordants o

I only use borax for cleaning, I have used it with soap to clean greasy wool but it must be rinsed well or it damages the fleece.

There are some threads - I'll try and find them..>>>>>>>

there's one http://www.selfsufficientish.com/forum/ ... 19&t=12988