Drgrandma

Oh too bad you tossed the walnuts! English and black walnuts are the SAME!! I was going from a book about natural dyeing, Wild Color by Jenny Dean. No need to shuck, just let them ferment in a bucket outside. But now I know why their were pieces of husk in the yard. Darned squirrels. At the end of fermentation, I strain the pieces out, and compost the whole mess of solids. I know I'm wasting potential dye, but they drop nuts every year! Ps toss in some paper and it will dye that too! This year I added 1/2 cup iron liquor (old nails and vinegar) to 3.5 gallon of walnut dye. Gave some wool a gorgeous deep brown. Hooray. Will concentrate the dye down by boiling before trying on leather. Wish me luck!

Hello, I'm looking thru this site trying to find out how to dye veg-tanned leather with homemade walnut dye. I started out dyeing wool and plant fiber cloth. Let the husks just ferment outside in 5 gal bucket, that makes color darker. You can also simmer the dilute dye to concentrate it, but it can tak days! A crockpot is handy because then you don't have to watch the temp as much. Just yesterday I was making dye bath up and added 1/2 cup iron liquor to 3.5 gallon fermented walnut juice...gave me a lovely DARK shade of brown! Much nicer than walnut alone. How did you apply walnut dye? Wet leather first or no? Hope this helps, and I hope you can help me too!