Dyeing Silk with Natural Dyes

This beautiful embroidery floss is 100% peace silk, meaning the silkworms were allowed to complete their metamorphosis and emerge from the cocoons before the silk was harvested from them. In this method, no silkworms were harmed and the fiber is wonderful to stitch with. As lovely as the natural color is, it was begging to be dyed.

I started with just three dyes - an indigo vat that I always have going, cochineal, and weld. I decided that a neutral brown color would be nice too so I used some lobaria oregana lichen that I had stored in my cabinet.

Mordanting

Many natural dyes require fiber to be mordanted, which means adding a compound that helps bind dye molecules to the fiber.

All of the skeins that I planned on dyeing with the weld or cochineal dye was first mordanted with potassium aluminum sulfate (alum.) This is the same alum that is used for pickling so you can find it with spices at most grocery stores. It’s much cheaper, however, to buy in larger amounts from sources that sell natural dye supplies.

I weighed my skeins of silk embroidery floss, and measured out alum to equal 10% of the weight of the fiber. I added the alum to a pot of hot tap water and stirred until the alum was dissolved. I left the fiber to soak in the hot water overnight. If you don’t want to wait that long, you can heat it for about an hour, then let cool. Heating it too high can cause silk to lose some of its luster so it’s important to keep it between 80 - 90 degrees farenheit, which is just below a simmer.

I removed the skeins from the alum water and rinsed in cool water to remove loose alum particles. Mordanted fiber can be dyed right away or dried and stored for later.

Dyeing with cochineal

Cochineal is a very potent dye material and I don’t usually measure it out. I use a tablespoon or two depending on how much fiber I’m dyeing. If the color doesn’t get as dark as I would like, I simply add more cochineal to the dye bath and dye the fiber again.

I grind cochineal using a mortar and pestle that is dedicated to dye material and not used for food. When they are a fine powder, I bundle them in a coffee filter and tie or rubber band it closed. I simmer the coffee filter bundle in a pot of water for an hour or two, until the water has developed a deep color.

I remove the coffee filter and add fiber, heating gently and stirring occasionally until the fiber develops the color I desire. I remove, rinse until water is clear, and let dry.

With cochineal, more fiber can be added until color is exhausted. Subsequent batches of fiber will be lighter and lighter pink.

Dyeing with weld

I purchase powdered weld and measure out several tablespoons into a coffee filter as with the cochineal. I simmer in water until it reaches a bright yellow color, then add fiber and simmer until the fiber picks up the color.

Overdyeing with indigo

I prefer to dye fiber with cochineal and weld before dipping in indigo to achieve blended colors. This variegated sea green was created by dipping weld-dyed fiber into the indigo. I did not worry about stirring the fiber while in the indigo vat as I wanted this slightly variegated look.

This fiber was dyed a pale pink in cochineal then dipped in indigo to create a pretty lilac color. I gently moved this skein of silk around in the vat so the color is more even than the green skein. There is still some slight variegation that adds to the beauty of this skein.

Dyeing with lichen

Silk does not need to be mordanted before dyeing with lichen. Again, I did not measure but just placed several handfulls of dry Lobaria oregana into a pot of water. I added the skein of embroidery floss to the pot and simmered on low for about an hour. I then left the lichen and fiber in the pot to steep overnight. Lichen dyes best with low heat and a long dyeing time. The photo below shows the lichen I used with a small piece of wool yarn that I also dyed. The wool was in a stronger dye bath, making it darker than the silk embroidery floss.

The rainbow of colors achieved is just beautiful! The silk has a shimmery luster and the slight variations in color along a strand lend depth and interest to your stitching. These colors, as well as the natural, undyed silk are all available in my shop and more colors will be coming in the future.