Customer Reviews

Natural Dyeing

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This book had great photos showing the entire process of mordanting and dyeing, and also of the different dyes and colors obtained with all of the common mordants.

If you only plan to use commercially available natural dyes, this will be a great resource.

The book was not for me because it only covered the traditional dyes like indigo, madder, logwood, etc. that for most are not available locally. I wanted a book that would tell me about plants that might actually be growing in my area.

I bought this book more for the information about the cleaning, mordanting and dyeing processes described in the beginning of the book. And I must say the photography is brilliant. As for obtaining the dyes, I use dye extracts from Table Rock Llamas in Colorado. They offer over 30 colors, including the exotics shown in "Natural Dyeing" (they don't sell toxic mordants). But if I want to grow my own dye plants, I rely on "A Dyer's Garden" by Rita Buchanan, a fantastic little book that gives growing info, dye recipies and results, and a supplier's list to obtain plants and seeds. Finally, I will experiment if I want to see what color a particular plant might give -- I hear bindweed, a noxious weed where I live, gives brilliant greens . . .

The photography in this book is stunning! Sadly, this is neither a good primer to dyeing techniques nor is it a great resource for experienced dyers because all of the "natural materials" used are extremely unusual plants and barks found in India and other exotic locales. This book does not provide the basics for people who are just starting out with dyeing using natural fibers and it does not provide any information about how to acquire these rare materials.

Is it possible to dye with oak leaves or banana peels? That's the kind of natural dyeing information that a novice dyer living in the American midwest needs. I suppose if I lived in a more exotic locale with greater access to botanical shops and markets, I might be able to use this book for something. As it is, I will admire the beautiful colors in the photographs and hope I might be able to mimic the colors with Jacquard dyes.

It's true, this is a gorgeously photographed book, and the process info is fantastic, but there is no information of any kind for resources. I'm still googling around distinguishing sources for various mordants and plants and materials. Luckily there are stores online selling at least some if not most of the dyestuffs used here. I can't imagine why some of these stores weren't listed at the back of the book as is customary with craft publications. Hints for gathering the materials locally would have been useful as well. Yet still it's a good book.