Search the Community
Showing results for '"natural dye"'.
Found 88 results
-
I've been playing around with natural leather dyes myself. Below is a table of some of the natural dyes that I've created so far, using Madder root, Brazilwood, Red Sandalwood, Old Fustic, vinagroon, and a variety of other natural reagents and mordants. I haven't even started exploring blues, yellows or browns yet. Almost all natural leather dyes require soaking for prolonged periods (e.g., days) in order to get good, saturated colors. There are exceptions (like Brazilwood and vinagroon). Unfortunately, most of the natural dyes that work with leather are fugitive (i.e., they are not color fast, sun fast or wash fast), so they have to be sealed and cannot be exposed to the elements. The rare exceptions include vinagroon, walnut dyes, and some lichen dyes. Also, most of the protocols for dyeing fibers do not translate well to leather, as many fiber dye baths require temps hotter than 180 degrees F (and that would obviously harden the leather). -
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! -
Does Anyone Have Experience With Natural Dye And Finishes?
Tayylor replied to Tayylor's topic in How Do I Do That?
Hi, So I have made natural dyes ro my satisfaction. However, I'm not sure if I need to bevel, skive and punch before placing the leather strap into the dye. I didn't do this when I dyed some straps and then when I beveled the leather underneath was much lighter. Can someone please clarify for me. -
Hi, I'm using natural dyes to color my collars, however most of the dye comes out very light. I would like to know what to apply for the finish that will darken the leather considerably. Thank you in advance.
-
The only way I have successfully gotten natural dyes darker is to leave them to soak in the solution for longer periods. If I do a blueberry or other natural dye I get a huge difference if I leave it for a few hours or if I leave it over night. Neatsfoot darkens it some but not much and sun could further bleech out the color.
-
Natural dyes typically require a mordent and boil or simmer. Otherwise, you'll find that they're not color fast, light fast, or both. Have a look at https://www.cs.arizona.edu/patterns/weaving/monographs/fms_dye.pdf for insight. Darker brown dyes are not as common as lighter yellows and tans, and a lot depends on how you mordent your material. Waxed tooling leather exposed to UV will darken on its own. See for yourself by putting a piece out in the sun.
-
Does Anyone Have Experience With Natural Dye And Finishes?
Tayylor replied to Tayylor's topic in How Do I Do That?
I will have to look up many of the things used for the recipies in that book. Well, not the urine, of course. I made the collar on the dog for my Avaitar. It was my first after some practice. This is not natural dye. -
Does Anyone Have Experience With Natural Dye And Finishes?
greenlake replied to Tayylor's topic in How Do I Do That?
I can't speak from experience, but if I ever was to make natural dyes or stains I'd pay close attention to chapter five in "The Leather Worker's Manual" by Standage. You can find it legally for free online. Edit: It also has recipes for finishes and many other products. It's a great resource, but many of the recipes outside of the dyes and stains can't be used as-is due to unsafe or unavailable ingredients. -
Did you try a batch with the salt for the mordant? I'm wanting to use natural dyes as well. I have only experimented with coffee and tea so far.
-
I don't see what the disagreement is. Calling something vegetable tanned aniline dyed leather says nothing about its temper, grain, intended use, etc. Just have a look at Horween's full tannage list. It's got heavily retanned Dublin, less greasy Essex and Derby all of which have remarkably different tempers than equine Vermont. These all come in a variety of colors that aren't achievable with natural dyes, meaning they're likely aniline dyed and perhaps even mordanted with chromium salts to achieve faster and more vibrant colors. One point to make is that you will be limiting sources if you confine yourself to searching solely for chrome-free leather when there are many leathers that aren't chrome tanned that won't necessarily be represented as such. US tanneries will most certainly be willing to tell you which of their leathers are chrome tanned. Importers probably not so much. If you are looking not to support processes that discharge chromium into the environment, that's another deal.
-
I do not believe they are redundant, both methods have distinct advantage and disadvantages. While it is true that this site is a wonderful source, there are lots of things that this, or any forum is simply no good at. Search in forums is always choppy at best, there are some terms that become so commonly used in discussion that they become useless to use as search terms. A forum is ideal for things like critiques, feedback, opinion and advice questions, and of course sharing your work with the community. The strength of a forum as a medium is conversation. There are some things however that it is quite bad at. There is some information that is just really hard to find though a forum search. Yes, the information is already here, but it buried between lots of back and fourth and conversation to dig though. It might be that the information you needed was on the fourth page of a thread and you gave up on the third page. Perhaps the thread which had the information you needed was under a title like "Need Help," which would give you no indication that this was a place where you would find what you need. The advantage of the wiki is organziation of the information and the repeated reviewing and revising of information. A wiki is easy to search for exactly what you need, whenever you need it. Because these are articles, not conversations, the information is presented in a much more complete and organzied way. Wikis are great for exploring though topics, clicking through from linked article to linked article with each step being a series of complete and distinct thoughts. Vinegaroon is great example of this. If you search leatherworker.net for the term "vinegaroon," you will find threads about people using vinegaroon, people suggesting others use vinegaroon, people asking if their batch looks okay, threads of people picking up in the middle of the vinegaroon process and asking about how the rinsing works, threads for questions that never got answerd and finally (not on the first page of the search results by the way) you will find threads about how to make the stuff. On a leather wiki that has been developed by the community for a sufficiently long time if you search vinegaroon, without fail the first article will be the "vinegaroon" article which will have all the information in one, well organized place with links to related topics to explore such as other natural dyes.
-
Hi Coming a bit late with my reply in this discussion. I noticed that applying on the surface of leather(not soak) the brown walnut hulls dye results in a bleeding leather - i guess this is the right term for wiping the dye with water. Not tried with coffee so far but I assume it ll be the same result. What veedub3 stated in a post earlier: adding some steel woo l as a mordant; I want to know if anybody tried adding small quantities of steel wool thus preserving the color of the coffee dye and then rubbin it ONLY on the surface, will it bleed? Or , is there a natural-diy mordant which u can use with a natural dye such as walnut hulls or coffee? I will try it soon and post my results. Mircea -
First Knife Sheath
Kansan replied to Bruno Rock's topic in Gun Holsters, Rifle Slings and Knife Sheathes
Looks nice, I like it. Was the olive oil the only thing you used to darken it? I've tried olive oil before but it didn't darken in that much. Did you soak it in the stuff? I'd like to use more natural dyes like that but haven't been able to achieve that type of darker hue. -
Thanks jack. Maybe the lack of a binder is why oil dye for me bleeds a LOT making it unusable for me regardless of how much I rub. I for sure am not going to source the solvents though. My question was more of me spit balling a thought and seeing where it goes. I am looking into aniline dyes, semi aniline dyes and natural dyes and learning about the other few methods of dyes that are outlined in a book I'm reading. Just for reference I recently stumbled on a potential mordant, copperas aka green vitriol aka ferrous sulfate. Source was from a old book on tanning. Used in inks and indigo dyes and very old methods of dye making. The last time I checked prices from tandy was 40-50 for the larger bottle (I think it may be removed from the catalog), but tandy has been known to raise prices.. so I probably should have known.Next order will be zeli if I need pro dye. The thought of 100 hides to manage is more of a goal (that I may or may not want to pursue depending on how well I can tan a single hide) than a reality as of right now in its beginning stages. I do have the tendency to go too fast at times.. so your comment is very valid. A single hide (more likely a square foot at a time), natural tannins (powdered or bark) plus syntans (penetrating), lime, and other common organic material and tools plus a litre of dye is all thats needed right now. So around $500 plus shipping is a realistic cost analysis for testing. 1-2 years for development. In a barn it should be enough room to tan 100 hides comfortably , although these things are more apparent when its time to do it. -
In the link you listed, he says what he used. He used annatto. You can buy annato at the farmers market/specialty market. Plants, berries, tree bark, nut shells, etc. can be used to make natural dyes which is what he did here. My guess is that his fingers are wet, and by spreading more of the annatto powder on as he rubs allows him to control the color, but that part would just be my guess. Karina pgivens beat me to it.
-
I have zero experience with natural dyes - to be honest I never dye any leathers besides the occassional edge dye. But I do love indigo and I was wondering if any of you guys have any experience with dyeing natural veg tan with indigo (preferably natural? -
Two more natural dyes I have used are Goldenseal (locally known as yellow root) and Red Puccoon root (locally known as blood root). Noted: I have yet to use these on leather, but I have used them on cloth, feathers, and wood. I simply bring the roots to a gentle boil for about 10 minutes, and then let them set until cool. I store them in a mason jar. The Goldenseal makes for a rich to bright yellow, and the Red Puccoon can be blood red to orange (depending on the color of the item you are dying). And you can mix them to get colors in between. The coverage is good if you don't over water. I usually just cover the roots with water. I experimented with soaking them in rubbing alchohol once, and it worked, but the colors weren't as dark. Also, the will mold in the jar over time. My main use was in dying wood arrows. So I wasn't as concerned with the mold as I would be with using it for leather products. So I simply scraped the mold off the top, and used it. I dipped the arrows in a PVC tube. -
That makes sense. Thanks! Also, I just posted a new thread about natural alternatives to rubber cement, considering you know so much about natural dyes, I was wondering if you might know anything on the subject? You can check the topic from my page if you feel so inclined. I haven't received any responses yet. -
Yes, keep metal, especially steel away from vinegaroon. If I'm doing smaller batches of vinegaroon I usually just keep it in the 1 gallon jug that the vinegar came in, it's plastic and has a lid and handlehandle and is easy to pour from. I've had more issues with contraction than expansion, and those have been mainly with vinegaroon. The more air in my dye vats the more susceptible they are to temperature fluctuations and creating a vacuum which makes lid removal difficult. I use 91%, it's what I can get in large bottles cheap. I haven't found it necessary to cook the alcohol out, the amount needed to stave off mold is a fraction of the amount of denatured alcohol found in spirit dyes, if it's not necessary to cook it out of there, then I don't see the need to do so with natural dyes. I've dyed hundreds of items in walnut dye with the alcohol left in and I've yet to see any issues. -
Anyone has experience with using dyed leather for garments that are machined washed? Would the dye just bleed onto other fabrics? Can the dye be just pre washed before assembly so that all the excess dye is removed, locking the remanding dye from bleeding. The only two I know that can be used safely is chamois leather and machine washable leathers from jean patches. Slow bark tanned leathers or home made leather made from natural dyes are also in my mind for some that won't bleed when machine washed.
-
Unless you want a sheen or gloss on the end product then there's no reason for a top finish or sealant of any type. Most natural dyes need to be oiled (sometimes copiously) to rehydrate the leather and to make the colors pop, but I've never had one transfer dye at all. On the rare occasion that I use a top finish on a project I fall back on either a wax/oil mixture or Mop N Glo (cut it 50% with water and it gives the same finish as Super Sheen). The wax mix is a 1:1 mix of beeswax and extra virgin olive oil, heat them slowly (I use a candle warmer) while stirring occasionally and allow the mixture to cool and set up, it will form a semi solid paste which melts at around body temperature. It can be applied with your fingers or a cloth, if it doesn't absorb right (it will sometimes leave an overly waxy coating) hit it with a hair dryer or heat gun.
-
Is there a need to apply a finish (like resolene) to seal in the dye to avoid crocking for vinegaroon, walnut dye, or other natural dyes/stains? Do you know of any natural finishes that would do as well as resolene?
-
I wouldn't rule out soldering iron and edge paint its a legit way of finishing edges (especially since you already have a soldering iron). Its totally up to you though, the european way (edge paint + soldering iron) works on all types of leathers from veg tan to chrome and pull up, where the traditional way of burnishing does not, which is what you have ask for and works well for me. The soldering iron route does not need any paste of any sort, no paraffin, or duck canvas, just sanding, edge paint (or your own recipe of natural dye and something like wax), light brief sanding then touch up that the paint didn't set properly, and add beeswax (optional) and rub with fingers. Cuts down on my time and never had an edge go bad so far.
-
I've used two methods to remove the oil from steel wool, soaking in acetone and allowing to drip dry and dousing with a flammable liquid (acetone, lighter fluid, denatured alcohol, etc) and then setting it on fire. I've found both methods to be equal when it comes to oil removal from fresh steel wool, in the end I tend to fall back on the soak and drip dry method as the douse and light method can be scary. I pour acetone into a bowl and swirl pads individually ensuring that each are saturated to the point of dripping and then hang them, outside, to dry. Nitrile gloves will protect you from the acetone if you're leery of skin contact. Lighting the solvents on fire can be really sketchy, if you go that route then I really suggest using lighter fluid simply so you can see the flame. Acetone and denatured alcohol both have a tendance to burn with a near invisible flame. Yes, technically you want the walnut husk, the outer fleshy skin surrounding the nut. You can buy dehydrated black walnut husk from natural dye suppliers and I've heard of people using the walnut cleaning medium sold by ammunition reloading companies, both routes are a bit expensive though. Harvesting yourself is really the cheapest route, I know walnuts can be found in the northeast section of Utah and the Navajo, Hopi and Zuni all are known to have traditionally used walnut dyes so I would assume that they can be found in the four corners region. Utah's a big state though. Butternut, pecan and hickory husks can all be used too, though they do result in slightly lighter colors.
-
I meant to say something about that, but completely forgot. As stated above you can't really change the color vinegaroon imparts, you can, however, use the oxidization process to alter the color of other natural dyes. Small amounts of iron (de greased steel wool) added to the dye will both darken the resulting dye and cause color changes in the dye. Adding it during the boiling process is easiest, though it can be added afterwards. When I say a small amount I'm talking less than a 1/4 of a pad of OOOO steel wool to 5 gallons of dye. More can be added, but I've noticed that it tends to mute the untertones and causes the color to look a bit lifeless. Natural fiber dyeing guides will give an idea of the resulting colors caused by adding iron, but the end result will likely be different due to the iron/tannin reaction within the leather.
