Lichen Dyes: Xanthoria

After a particularly windy night, I took a short walk along the Canal near our house. The wind had knocked down a lot of tree branches that were covered with lichen. I gathered some of them up and took them home. I am not very familiar yet with lichens of the UK, but I think this is xanthoria parietina, which should produce yellow dyes.

I scraped the lichen off the branches and put them into an organza mesh bag. I put the lichen dyestuff into a dyepot, added water and let the dye stock simmer for a few hours.

Xanthoria Lichen 2

Some Xanthoria parientina have 2 dye pigments, yellow and red. The red pigments can also produce pinks, plums and blues when fermented in ammonia. To test whether the xanthoria will produce the red shades, add a bit of household bleach to the lichen. If it turns red, then the dyestuff can be fermented.

Xanthoria parietina Bleach Test

Chichester Canal Walk

Xanthoria Lichen

Dye Results

The cotton bag didn’t turn red but is a pretty shade of soft pink. I suppose a lot more lichen would be required to get deeper colour.

Xanthoria parietina Tote Bag