Join me on a foraging trip (Part 1) in the beautiful mountains of Central Idaho to search for color from conifer trees. Learn to identify pine and spruce cones and how to ethically collect them for your dye pot. The tannins in cones bond wonderfully with textile and create a range of beige colors with orange and pink hues. After exploring the landscape of the Sawtooth and Boulder mountains in search of cones, this tutorial will show you how to brew dye with the resulting color swatch samples (cotton & silk) with various mordants.
Noble Fir Dye
If you love having fresh evergreen in your home for holiday decorations, keep that aroma brewing by recycling the boughs in your dye pot - needles and all! The natural tannin in the branches will give you a beige color on textile, but with an iron water shift, you can achieve deep grays as well. This tutorial will show you how to brew dye from a noble fir Christmas tree and shift color with iron water, plus the resulting color swatch samples (cotton, bamboo, linen & silk) with various mordants.