Dye Teal on Silk With Dried Woad Leaves — No Vat Needed

A practical experiment in making a fructose reduction vat with dried, ground Isatis tinctoria leaves. Instead of forcing raw woad into the classic 1-2-3 indigo vat formula, I look at its much lower indigotin content and explore how little lime and fructose we actually need to create beautiful, soft, grayish woad blues on silk, wool, and cotton.

Discover how to create beautiful blue-and-white marbled cotton using a simple flour resist and freshly reduced indigo. This step-by-step tutorial explains the history of resist dyeing, how the technique works, and how to achieve crisp, organic crackle patterns with just a few basic ingredients. Perfect for beginners and experienced natural dyers alike.

Learn how to make a reliable hydros indigo vat with this beginner-friendly step-by-step guide. Includes recipe, pH, troubleshooting, and dyeing tips.

Not sure if your fiber needs a mordant? Use this simple decision guide to learn when to mordant wool, silk, cotton, linen, and plant fibers before dyeing.

Murasaki (Lithospermum erythrorhizon), also known as purple gromwell or shikon, has produced some of Japan’s most treasured purple dyes for over a thousand years. In this guide, discover the history of this remarkable root, why it was once reserved for emperors, and how to prepare and dye with it using traditional low-temperature techniques to create luminous violet and purple shades on silk and wool.

For centuries, the origin of the Biblical blue known as tekhelet has fascinated historians, chemists, archaeologists, and dyers alike. While modern research has shown that the Mediterranean murex snail can produce both purple and blue, this article explores a different question: how might Biblical blue actually have been produced in practice? Drawing on historical sources, archaeological evidence, dye chemistry, and the practical realities of an ancient dye workshop, I propose an alternative hypothesis that may explain why tekhelet was not a separate production process at all, but rather the natural continuation of one.

GOTS vs. FDA What’s the Difference and Why It Matters GOTS stands for the Global Organic Textile Standard, the leading worldwide certification for organic fibers. It regulates the entire textile supply chain from field to finished fabric and it focuses on environmental impact, worker safety, and chemical safety. Only substances on its Positive List may [...]

If you’re wondering how to fix natural dye color after it fades or shifts, start by diagnosing whether the problem is a mordant issue, a pH imbalance, water chemistry, or an aftercare failure. You followed the recipe exactly. The color looked stunning in the pot, rich and deep and exactly what you envisioned. Three washes [...]

From carefully calibrated wool samples to slow stitching with local makers, this residency held both structure and openness, color, process, and the kind of connection you can’t really plan.

Indonesia, with its rich biodiversity and long tradition of craftsmanship, is a haven for natural dye enthusiasts. This archipelago of more than 17,000 islands is home to a treasure trove of plant-based dyes, each deeply embedded in local culture and heritage. The lush landscapes provide abundant resources, while centuries-old techniques bring out the vivid hues [...]

The fruits of the Genipa americana are known as caruto, huito, jenipapo, guaitil, tapaculo, xagua, maluco, and vito, but most commonly Jagua, (the ‘J’ is pronounced as an ‘H’) which is what we will call it in this article. When I heard about it I KNEW I had to get my hands on this magic. [...]

The Indigotin Extraction Process To extract indigotin so we can store it (almost) indefinitely) we need to transform indican (a pale green organic compound present in the leaves of Indigofera, Isatis and Persicaria plants) into indoxyl and then into indigotin. To explain this complicated process I have made a small illustrative video. Do we always [...]

In several previous blogs you have been able to see and read more about the different results in natural dyes when using different mordants. In this blog I want to show you the results in reference to eco printing. The natural juices and tannins present in the leaves leave different prints on fabric and paper [...]

In this blog I will show the different colours achieved with tannins, and how to create a dark background using an iron Blanket in eco printing. The classic way of creating blacks and other dark backgrounds in eco printing is the use of tannins in combination with ferrous sulphate (often called; iron). It’s quick, easy [...]

If you know my work you know I will always try to go straight to the source of everything; my cochineal comes directly from a small farmer, the eri silk fabrics come from a family of weavers I know personally, and so on. Until now, my Indigo has always come from India. In the region [...]

I know I promised, and then things happened but after the post about logwood blue, here is the method for logwood black. Logwood black sequence Lately I have been doing a lot of cross research, taking recipes from different (old) books such as Bancroft, Bronson and Liles and evaluating the percentages. Often this is a [...]

Introduction; Logwood, haematoxylon campechianum, member of the pea family. Once it was super popular, then it became forbidden for use because it was not lightfast by Queen Elizabeth I of Engeland in 1581. Can we use it in good faith as a natural dye? I believe we can, but good mordanting is the key to [...]

How to use sappan wood as a fabric dye. Sappan Wood, also known as eastern Brazilwood, or East Indian red wood. Latin name: Caesalpinia Sappan Sappan wood is a multipurpose tree, giving us valuable natural dyes with medicinal plant properties. In India, it is cultivated in gardens and nurseries as a live fence plant in [...]

I only knew one type of Rhubarb; the sour, rich red compote my English aunt introduced us to. Eaten with clotted cream or in a tray bake with delicious crumbs on top. The tart, sour taste that makes your mouth wrinkle compensated with a lot of sugar. In Israel I was able to find it [...]

My first tries where just to boil the powder which gave me gorgeous greenish tans. A little post mordanting with 1%wof ferrous sulphate made the colours even more intense. Then I discovered something completely different which required no heating and almost no water in less than 30 minutes. No heating and no water, and less [...]