Dyeing Plant Fibres with Logwood
Logwood or Haematoxylon Campechianum comes from the heartwood of the logwood trees that grow in Mexico and Central and South America. Logwood can produce rich deep aubergine purples, dusky blues, soft lilacs and greys and silver tones. Logwood is not extremely colourfast, so a bit of care needs to be used in selecting the final final end use. Choose to make items that won’t get a lot of sun exposure.
Every few days, I am experimenting with a different natural plant dye, to see what colours it creates. The colours and shades that you can get vary a lot, depending on the acidity of the water, the mordant you use, the strength of the dye stock and the type of material you are dyeing.
I made a Logwood dyebath using 30 grams of Logwood powder. I let the dyebath simmer on medium heat for a few hours, not letting the bath reach boiling point.
I added pre-mordanted fabric to the dyepot and let that simmer for a few hours.
Logwood Dyed Tote Bag
Logwood Scarf
The scarf is made from Cotton Batiste with hand rolled hems. The scarves are completely made by hand in India, mostly by women, who are paid a higher salary than most due to the craftwork involved. No exploitation, no child labour, great quality.
The scarf has been decorated with a traditional Shibori resist dye technique. This scarf uses a Hitta Miura style of design where small areas of the fabric are hand knotted and then dipped into the Logwood natural dye vat. A soft zigzag Shibori design runs across the length of the hand dyed scarf.
Hemp Dyed with Logwood
There was still a lot of logwood colour left in the dyepot so I added pre-mordanted hemp roving into the dye stock and let this gently simmer for a few hours. The natural dye process helps to soften the hemp fibres making it easier to spin.
Bamboo Dyed with Logwood
Hemp and Bamboo are wonderful when they are carded together.
Use Alcohol
I dyed these samples several years ago, I have since discovered that when using plant dyes that are made of wood bark, you can achieve better extraction of the dye if you soak the dye chips or ground dye bark in alcohol overnight or for a few days until you see colour in the alcohol.
I have recently become allergic to rubbing alcohol or isopropyl alcohol so I now use vodka to extract the dye colour.
I have also developed a severe allergy to Bamboo so have discontinued wearing bamboo clothing or working with bamboo fibres or yarns.
My Bamboo Allergy
Categories: DYES
