Natural Dyeing

The warm neutrals and deep blues that defined 1950s-60s Danish interiors came from specific plant chemistry. Madder alizarin, indigo fermentation vats, and walnut juglone created the Scandinavian color palette.

Natural dyeing requires specific equipment: stainless steel pots that won't react with dyes, pH strips for indigo vats, thermometers for temperature control, and dedicated tools that never touch food again.

Wool felts and takes dye easily. Cotton resists both. Silk is strong and lustrous. Linen is stiff until it softens. Each natural fiber behaves differently on the loom, in the dye bath, and in finished textiles.

Mordants are metal salts that bond dye to fiber permanently. The same plant produces completely different colors depending on which mordant you use - madder with alum creates red, madder with iron makes purple-brown.

From avocado pits that create pink to black beans that produce blue, natural dye sources create colors that often surprise. Here's what actually produces which hues, and why the source material doesn't always match the resulting color.

Resist dyeing creates patterns by blocking dye from reaching certain areas of fabric. Here's how different cultures developed techniques from wax to stitching to create designs that couldn't exist any other way.

Indigo is the only natural dye that requires fermentation to work. Here's why this blue pigment has its own category in dyeing, and what makes the process so different from every other natural dye.