Making Your Own Dyes

[Grey Drakkon]

So in my back yard I have a huge old Mulberry tree, which drops a metric ton of berries that stain everything, up to and including my chickens. (pretty easy to tell when they've been eating them, beaks are all purple stained on the edges and backs have splotches where berries bounce off of them)

Should have taken a before pic, but as you can see the scrap of veg tan I used had plenty of surface flaws which turned out to make it look pretty neat. I just cut the strap and the 5 strands, took it outside and started squishing berries (with gloved hands, learned not to pick up the berries if I didn't want to get stained a while ago) and rubbing the juice onto the leather. It ended up making a nice dusty rose color with darker flecks where the flaws in the leather caught more of the juice. After letting it mostly dry, I burnished the edges with a scrap of canvas and that made a really nice burgandy, pretty much the same color as the darker spots on the leather. Then I rubbed beeswax over it and braided it up, I'll have to see how the stain lasts long term but for now it's sealed in pretty well, just rubbed it on some white paper and not a bit of color came off.

I'm thinking next I'll try juicing a bunch of the berries and reducing it on the stove to get a more concentrated liquid. Looking online it says add salt to berries to use as a mordant (something to make the dye "stick") but I worry about how that will act with the leather. Maybe I'll do a few batches...

Anyone else try doing it the old-old school way? I know some people have made vinegaroon (which I'd also like to try). and for that matter, try out some of the colors/plants shown on this page: http://pioneerthinking.com/crafts/natural-dyes

[Tayylor]

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.

[Grey Drakkon]

I didn't get the chance to collect more berries this year, crows discovered the berries as well as squirrels and were eating up all the good ones that were high up, and then their season ended. I'm going to try walnut hulls next though, since I have a Black Walnut tree in the yard that's starting to drop nuts.

[Tayylor]

Pesky animals. Thanks for the reply. Let me know how the walnut dye turns out.

[Grey Drakkon]

So today I gathered up some black walnuts. Holy crap, do NOT pick up the fallen ones, they're 90% grubs and 10% hull. Apparently there's a really bad huskfly infestation in this area, because even the mostly green hulls that are on trees had at least a few of the grubs in them. Anyway, I gathered up some nuts, ripped off the hulls and dumped them all in an enamelware pot with some water. I pulled out the actual walnuts before bringing it to a boil, then reduced it to low and left it alone for over an hour. I filtered the liquid through a cotton cloth, and applied a bunch of coats to a bird ring I made. The picture of it laying flat shows the original leather color behind it.

[Tayylor]

Thank you for taking the time to write and add pictures. Turned out a nice shade of brown. Now on to find Walunt Hulls...

[BondoBobCustomSaddles]

I can only speak to vinagaroon. The first batch I made worked so good, I actually have been using it a lot. Second batch not so good. For some reason it just doesn't get black like the first batch. Go figure the maker must have done something wrong!

Bob

[Grey Drakkon]

Did you use the same type of metal/vinegar? I remember reading that someone used steel wool but it had some kind of coating on it that made the vinegaroon turn out cruddy. I imagine that vinegar can come in different strengths, and temperature could probably affect the rate too. Thanks for the reminder about vinegaroon though! Need to make a batch of it and try it out.

Thank you for taking the time to write and add pictures. Turned out a nice shade of brown. Now on to find Walunt Hulls...

If you live near a park check out if they have any walnut trees growing, that's actually where I got most of mine. Or just ask around, lots of people who have black walnut in their yards are eager to get rid of the hulls because they make a huge mess.

I think I'll try making another batch, but this time putting them in a cloth and letting it sit in the bucket for a few days, then cooking it up and seeing if that gives me a darker color.

[BondoBobCustomSaddles]

Grey, yea that is the funny part of it. I used the same steel wool, out of the same pkg, prepped it the same way as as before with hydrogen peroxide for a couple of days to promote rusting, then in the same vinegar (out of the same bottle) and let it work for 3 days then filtered out the metal and crud, and let it cook for 3 more days. Nothing different but; the results was not nearly as strong.

Going to try again. I like the vinegaroon as it does a nice job on quick projects and repairs.

Bob

[Oldtoolsniper]

Most all steel wool has oil on it to retard rust. I clean mine with gasoline or whatever thinner I have around at the time. Liberon makes an oil free steel wool.

[Oldtoolsniper]

I made some walnut dye using hulls with denatured alcohol, I got just about the same results as what you're showing. It just drives faster on the leather but looks about the same. I put bugs and all in the hopper and strained the mess with pantyhose from the thrift store after the color leached into the solvent.

[Reegesc]

Clever girl...

[Grey Drakkon]

[Reegesc]

Ha...