Spring time is the right time.

For me, Spring is the best time for natural dyeing. Flowers, plants and trees are waking up from their winter slumber and are ready to give us beauty, food, scent and color.

How could anyone not like this time of the year? And not be ready to dye naturally.

It’s the perfect time of the year for experimenting. Lol, but I would say the same thing about the Fall wouldn’t I?

Day 1:

I gathered flowers and added them to mason jars filled with lukewarm water and sat them in a window seal on the front porch. Simple, natural beauty. Amazingly after only an hour or so I could see the natural color beginning to tint the water.

One of the jars contains fresh leaves from my Japanese Maple. Japanese Maples make a spectacular, rich reddish purple color. Mostly, red. And although it’s a deep color, there’s still a natural clear brightness about the color. I picked some leave from another red Maple. The color it yeilded is deeper than the Japanese Maple, without the brightness. Through past experiments I’ve learned that in the Spring Japanese Maples give great color, but not so much in the Fall.

Day 2:

By the next morning the color from the flowers had pretty much fully tinted the water…for the most part.

On Day 1, I’d hoped the mint leaves would make some type of color, but they didn’t. Well, not any color to talk about.

The water was only very slightly tinted green. When I added allum to the mix, the slight green hue didn’t fade or intensify. By Day 2, they remained unchanged.

Isis give different colors based on the original color of the flower head, whether or not I used a bloom or bud and whether or not the bloom or bud was fresh or drying out. I also have three purple variety of iris in my garden. Not all of them are in the same bed.

Although not needed, allum deepened the colors.

With allum the red peonies yield an orange color. The jar of pink peonies did nothing except look pretty in their jar. This was the case with or without the addition of allum.

I forgot to mention, I started the Japanese Maple leaves off by first simmering them in a steel pot of cold water for about 5 or 6 minutes. Later, I’m planning on picking more leaves while they’re prime for extracting color and adding them to jars without initially simmering them to determine whether or not it makes much of a different in extracting color.

Day 3

I fell in love with blues of the Iris. The resulting colors were dependent on whether or not allum was added and whether or not fresh or drying blooms or buds were used. I completely LOVE the color partially dry Iris blooms and fresh Iris buds give. The blue is pure, it reminds me of Indigo.

The wisteria vine bloomed in one of my gardens. I picked a few and added them to a jar along with some purple salvia. I couldn’t resist adding an allium to a new jar.

Days 4-5

My biggest takeaways from this Mad Scientist Experiment is that it doesn’t take very much effort to extract color naturally from flowers in the Spring. To my delight the iris’ produced four very different shades of blue and blue/green. Believe me, even if it’s difficult to tell from these photos.

Maple leaves make brilliant colors, especially the Japanese Maple.

Tomorrow I’ll remove all of the spent flowers and leaves (a few bits and pieces here and there) and sit the jars in more direct sunlight. Spent plant waste can be added to compost and for paper making.

What about preserving the liquids?

Let’s face it, the flowers are decomposing naturally in water. When the lids are opened after a day or two, don’t expect freshness.

It’s a good thing allum ( a salt) is a natural preservative. So are citric acid, rosemary extract, sugar and grape seed oil.

Harmless plant mould won’t show up anytime soon, but over time if the dyes aren’t used it can.

That reminds me! I made some Japanse Maple and other extractions last year and the year before—I’ll check up on them to see how they’re fairing in a couple of days and I’ll post about it.

Just remember, these are natural dyes (and paints and inks) I’m making. I don’t plan on them lasting a lifetime. I’m going to use them.

Will the color last? Art the colors lightfast?

I get it. The colors are beautiful. We want them to last in all of their brilliance forever. They won’t. Even indigo fades. I’ll get into that in a moment.

The truth is, just like denim jeans (dyed usually with indigo), both natural colors and synthetic colors do and will fade.

What people really want to know is, “If I wash this will the colors fade or wash away-right away?”

It’s equivalent to me spending exhaustive amounts of time trying to find ways of preserving my tulip’s (tulipia) color, scents and beauty because I know, soon, one day I’ll go out in my garden and their blooms will be done and gone for the season. I spend so much time drying them, cutting them to use in arrangements, heat pressing them, photographing and trying to discover ways of keeping them around that I don’t get to relax and enjoy them.

I missed the experience because I was too exhausted trying to possess them…for lack of better phrasing.

Don’t do that with natural dyeing.

There’s no way of stopping “the fade”. But, we can help the colors last a very, very long time. And improve our chances of the colors not altering, fading or vanishing when they’re washed or when heat is applied.

This is done through preparation before dyeing and by heat setting the color and good aftercare.

Don’t sweat the things you can’t change. Enjoy yourself.