Concept in development
The Natural Dye Box
Dye a set of cotton napkins and a silk scarf with plant dyes, mordanted properly so the colour is still there after the third wash.
What you would make
Four cotton napkins and one silk scarf, dyed from three plant sources, with part of each batch pulled aside and shifted with an iron modifier so you end up with two shades from every dye pot.
Cotton and silk are in the same box on purpose. They are different fibre types — cellulose and protein — and they need different preparation, take colour at different rates and end up noticeably different shades from the same dye bath. Doing both at once makes the reason obvious in a way that reading about it does not.
What would be in the box
- Four cotton napkins and one silk scarf, both already scoured. Scouring is a hot wash with a strong detergent that strips oils, waxes and mill sizing, and skipping it is why first attempts come out blotchy.
- Alum mordant, pre-weighed for the exact weight of fibre in the box, with the percentage stated so you can scale it later.
- Tannin for the cotton, which needs the extra step that the silk does not.
- Three dyestuffs that give reliable, distinct colours — a yellow, a red-brown and a soft pink — in quantities matched to the fibre weight.
- A small quantity of iron as a modifier. Used sparingly it saddens and deepens a colour dramatically; used carelessly it turns everything grey and weakens the fibre.
- Muslin straining cloth, gloves and a pH strip, and a printed guide covering weight of fibre, scouring, mordanting, the dye bath, modifying and the first wash.
What you would need that is not included
A large stainless steel pot kept only for dyeing, a heat source, kitchen scales, and a sink you can stain. This is the one box with a real equipment requirement, and there is no way around it: dye pots do not go back to cooking. Deliberately not included, because posting a stockpot is absurd and most people can find a second-hand one for very little.
Read the guide now
Where it leads
Natural dyeing opens out further than any other box here. Once mordanting is second nature, the directions are a proper indigo vat, bundle dyeing and eco-printing with leaves, growing a dye plant, or shifting shades with pH rather than iron. The mordants keep indefinitely and the technique transfers to any fibre you can weigh.
Hear about this box when it exists
The Natural Dye Box is a concept in development. There is nothing to buy here, and there will not be until the box is real and I can post one.
No payment is taken anywhere on this site and no orders are being accepted.
- Craft
- Natural dyeing
- Skill level
- Advancing beginner
- Time to make
- Two days, mostly waiting
- Status
- Concept in development