I have Stress management techniques for effective problem solving whole post Onino how Onipn make an alum bath here with lots of info about what types of mordant I use and how to use them. Cassie Langstraat. Both pots were brought to a simmering and heated for ninety minutes.

Onion as a natural dye -

Dyeing wool with onions This is a brilliant way to begin dyeing with plants. You need: A big pan — big enough to take your wool and swirl it about. A sieve for straining the dye bath.

A large bowl or tub. A skein or two of natural undyed wool. As many papery onion skins as you can get your hands on — save them from your cooking, ask friends or the greengrocer. The more onion skins you have, the deeper the colour.

Method: 1 Make the dye bath Put all the onion skins into your pan, cover with water and bring to a simmer. Drain the water off. Relax into the weekend with my Friday Letters delivered straight to your inbox.

Tags: sustainable making sustainable making members natural dyes making. Just throw them in the normal wash machine with some detergent, and wash on a normal cycle. Hang to dry. Bring the onion skins to a boil and simmer on low for 1 hour.

In a separate pot, boil some water and add your fabric to this to let it boil for about 5 minutes or so. This will help the dye adhere to the fabric better. Using tongs, carefully add the hot fabric to the dye pot with the onion skins. Stir well to ensure no air bubbles are trapped under the fabric.

Simmer the dye and fabric for an hour, then turn off heat and allow the fabric to soak in the dye for 1 day. After your fabric has been sitting in the dye for 24 hours, it should have a bright yellow hue. Under cold running water, rinse out the dye from your fabric.

Continue to rinse until no more pigment comes out from the fabric and the water runs clear over it. Allow the fabric to air-dry on a drying rack, clothesline, or over a hanger.

It was a beautiful sunny day when I finished dyeing, so on the clothesline they went! After my fabrics dried I was so happy with the bright yellow color from the onion skins.

These tea towels would make such a perfect hand-made gift — but I am keeping them because they are a little too beautiful to part with. We get Misfit boxes every other week and love picking out favorite produce for delivery. If you use this method to dye with onion skins, be sure to leave me a comment or ask a question below, and tag me on Instagram so I can feature you.

I love seeing all your photos! Kelly Jensen has 7 years experience as a food blogger, freelance recipe developer, content creator, beekeeper, and loves cooking everything she can from scratch. View all post by Kelly Jensen Website. This was very easy! in a 4-gallon pot, covered with water and boiled them for an hour.

posted 8 years ago 4 Number of slices to send:. A friend just sent me this poem after seeing pictures of my onion skin dyes I think it is fitting in this thread Ode to the Onion Onion, luminous flask, your beauty formed petal by petal, crystal scales expanded you and in the secrecy of the dark earth your belly grew round with dew.

Under the earth the miracle happened and when your clumsy green stem appeared, and your leaves were born like swords in the garden, the earth heaped up her power showing your naked transparency, and as the remote sea in lifting the breasts of Aphrodite duplicating the magnolia, so did the earth make you, onion clear as a planet and destined to shine, constant constellation, round rose of water, upon the table of the poor.

You make us cry without hurting us. I have praised everything that exists, but to me, onion, you are more beautiful than a bird of dazzling feathers, heavenly globe, platinum goblet, unmoving dance of the snowy anemone and the fragrance of the earth lives in your crystalline nature.

by Pablo Neruda. Cassie Langstraat. I like posted 8 years ago 1 Number of slices to send:. OMG I LOVE ONIONS and I LOVE that ode to onions! Awesome stuff you're doing with the dying too! Dan Boone. posted 8 years ago 2 Number of slices to send:.

With me the question is never "how much onion? The question is always "how many? She used them to make colored beads from king salmon vertebrae and then she used those to decorate birch bark baskets she'd learned to make from a couple of ancient Athabascan women.

I was not typically the favorite child but I did earn some brownie points for being the only kid willing to cheerfully help her dig spruce roots and cut birch bark for the baskets. Olenka Kleban. posted 8 years ago 3 Number of slices to send:. Here's a picture from a month ago in the tipi.

I had just made a fresh batch of red onion skin dye. Thekla McDaniels. I used to do a lot of dying with natural materials, especially onion skins, walnut hulls, eucalyptus bark and tea and coffee.

When dying wool and silk, these need no mordants at all, and I think the same is true of cotton. I used to use welches grape juice concord grape juice , can't remember whether it required a mordant, but the grape juice made an olive green on wool.

Marigold petals make a nice yellow. You can use chrome as a mordant, but it will make a yellow cast. Have fun! posted 8 years ago Number of slices to send:. I am on to bodark next if my rain water holds out Olenka, Thekla please post pictures of things you've dyed with onion skins if you have some photos, I love seeing what others are doing.

Daniel, I would love to try dying bone. here is my last years attempt at coloring eggs with onion skins and some with turmeric dying eggs with vegetable dyes. Sorry, Judith. In my case it has been 40 years since I did the dying. No photos since before digital cameras, computers, cell phones ;-} , no yarn, no remains.

Marta Iwanek, photographer, had the great idea of putting some of the dyes I've been exploring including onion skins into a video for the Toronto Star. Olenka, That's beautiful, and it leaves me feeling I could try it and enjoy it. Thanks so much. Thanks, Thekla! Mission accomplished. Art is really for everyone.

Sharon LaPlante. I've done the yellow onion skin dye with t-shirts using alum as a mordant and they kept their color for years.

As far as I recall she just cleaned the salmon vertebrae I think she cooked them just enough to make the spinal cord tissue easy to remove and dried them. Then she'd keep them rattling around in a jar until she was ready to do a dye job, which might be a year or more later.

But it's been a long time, and maybe she did other stuff I didn't know about. Vida Norris.

Naural onion skins create a batural range of Onion as a natural dye. Protein fibers aw as wool Oniion Onion as a natural dye, dye Exotic Berry Varieties pale a medium nutmeg brown, with a mix of rosewood, russet and rosy OOnion. Cellulose fibers such as cotton, hemp, and bamboo dye a range of seashell pinks, with a mix of c hampagne, pale, and silver pink. Natural dye colors are living colors, they are alive with the life that made them. The dry outer skins of onions can be used for coloring natural textile materials and easter eggs. Red onion skins create a different range of colors than yellow onions skins, so it's important to keep your dye sources separated. This is Onion as a natural dye Skincare mistakes to avoid way Onioj begin dyeing with plants. You Natueal keep your dye for Onipn batch of wool — add in natkral onions if you want the colour to natiral richer or simply repeat step for lighter coloured yarn. Put all the onion skins into your pan, cover with water and bring to a simmer. Simmer for half an hour and then leave to cool and let it steep overnight. Take out the onion skins and put them on the compost heap. Drain the dye through a sieve into your tub.