Purple/Red-Black dye for Linen ?

[netoleon]

I splurged on a 100% flax linen hunting frock this year, but it's "natural" colored. I'm looking for some dyestuff that approximates a regional favorite - sort of purplish, really dark red/blackish color. Originally it was probably some plant type indigenous to the MD/VA tidewater area. One thing I can think of is Pokeweed berry, but it isn't fast without an Alum mordant ( so I'm told ). I also don't know that Alum was available for that purpose in colonial times. I considered Red Cabbage as well, but I'm not sure it was grown here back then.

Anybody up on this ? What can I use that grows on the East coast to give a purplish/dark red tone on Linen ? TIA.

 

[Norskie]

I'm no expert, but you may have to build that color in a series of different shades. Perhaps beet juice for the red tone and indigo to turn it purple. Maybe logwood brown to blacken it. Sounds like experiment time. :grin:

 

[paulvallandigham]

How about indigo, and walnut dye together to get it as dark as you want? There haveto be books on natural dyes you can find on the internet.

 

[Bountyhunter]

This is from one of my books on quill work. This is supposed to be from original recipes that would have been used before 1830, as that is the time that the Indians started using commercial dyes brought in by the euro-pean traders.

Red dye was made from:
Blood root
Sassafrass
Red Bedstraw
Alder
Buffalo berry
Puccoon (Lithospeermum carolinense)
Red Osier Dogwood
Wild Plum
Choke Cherry
Hemlock
Red Cedar

Mordants:
Birch
Oak
Iron oxides
Nut Galls
Sumac
Alder
Black Oak
Ashes
Alum
Vinegar
Dock--female

Dye Formula for quills. I would think that if you could dye quills, you could dye anything that would take dye.

1. Blood root and alder inner bark mixed in equal parts and boiled in water. Add alum. Simmer quills in resulting liquid until desired shade is reached.
2.Two parts blood root, one part alder, one part red osier dogwood, one part choke cherry. Boil for quite awhile then steep quills in the hot liquid.
3.Nine inches of puccoon root boiled in one quart of water. Soak quills in hot water and then simmer in dye for half an hour and let set overnight. May be re-dyed to get desired shade.
4.Scrape the outer bark off of hemlock root and boil the rest with alum added. Soak the quills in the hot liquid. Grindstone dust may be used instead of the alum.
5.Boil the bark from oak, white birch, and red osier dogwood. add two cups of cedar bark ash to the liquid and boil again. Strain the liquid and add previously soaked quills.
6.Buffalo berry or squaw currents boiled in water with female dock root. Steep quills in hot dye bath. Alum may be added.
7.Red bedstraw boiled in water with alum. Quills are steeped in the dye bath. Re-dye the quills until the desires shade is reached.

Lists of a number of colors in this book--A Quillwork Companion by Heinbbuch.

Let us know if you try these and if they work. Purples were done with Blackberries and alum. Apparently alum was naturally available as they refer to it as allum. It was imported from England in the early 17th century as a mordant for dyeing wool.

 

[bob1961]

here's a couple of links to the berry plant my brother and i used to have fights with and turned our clothes purple with we lived in N.J. and it's a east coast plant....our mother got real mad at us fer it :v ..............bob

poke weed

poke weed

poke weed

 

Cordovan leather dye for dark and Oxblood for more red and not quite so dark, altho I don't know how well leather dye would work on cloth.

 

[LRB]

Save yourself time, effort, and headaches. Rit berries! :grin: