What are natural dyes? Most natural dyes come from dye plants, the best-known ones including madder, brazilwood, logwood, weld, woad and indigo. Some natural dyes, such as cochineal, come from insects, or from mineral sources.
Madder, weld and other dye plants have been used for thousands of years. Until the late 1800s when synthetic dyes came into common use, textile colours came from the use of natural dyes. Natural dyeing can, however, easily become the future. Natural dyes are a renewable resource and not dependent on petroleum as are many synthetic dyes.
Providing alum is used as a mordant, plant dyes use no toxic or polluting chemicals, and the organic matter left over from dye plants can be put on the compost. Combined with the natural colours of wool and cotton, natural fabric dyes such as indigo and cochineal are arguably the only possible colours for dyeing organic textiles. Read more about natural dyes and buy natural dyes here.
Dyeing with Natural Dye Extracts Although it is very exciting to dye fibre directly from plants that you have grown yourself, natural dye extracts are economical, very concentrated and easy to repeat a colour. They save time as they do not require lengthy pre-soaking and simmering, and dye extracts can be mixed to obtain different dye colours. Read more about natural dye extracts here and buy dye extracts here.
Customer Comments: Thank you for your prompt response to my order for dye seeds which I received today. I am writing to say that I find your websites very interesting and will definitely be making other orders very soon! Best wishes and "bonne continuation" (as the French say!). Wendy from France
I loved your website, we can feel your heart in it and it's great. Audrey from France
"Fascinating and useful site. Must have taken a lot of effort to research and maintain it.’ David Finnegan, Southport
‘Brilliant service. Finding your website really informative.’ Claire from Shipley, UK
'Wow! Thank you so much for sending me my parcel in record time – I was amazed and delighted! I am just starting out with natural dyeing of our own alpacas' yarn and so it is very exciting to be in a position to get going.' Carole from Cairndinnis Alpacas
'Just to let you know that I've been really impressed with your service and the quality of the materials and information on the website.' Clare http://clarabellacraft.blogspot.com/
“Thank you for the super quick delivery!” Estelle Faust, Harrow
“Hello! You have a wonderful website! So much information! I love all the dyes you have and your product list is fantastic! Just what I'm looking for.” Anne McEnroe, California, USA
'I received the parcel two days ego. All is perfect. Thank you very much. And special thanks for flyers. I visited your other websites and found some very interesting things!' Dmitry Sukhoverkov, Moscow, Russia
What's new on this website?
2020
Covid news:-
03 Dec
1st class post and Airmail continue to be slow for the foreseeable future - see our note of 12 Oct, below.
05 Nov
England is starting a 4 week lockdown today but WildColours is continuing to trade! Orders may take longer to ship due to the high volume of orders being received.
from Oct
Covid19: We are in the studio & shipping orders only 2 days a week at the moment, usually Monday & Thursday.
12 Oct
Covid19: We regret to report that UK 1st class post is often very slow at the moment and some is taking 2 weeks or more! This appears to be especially a problem in London. Some Airmail is also taking a long time and may take 5 to 8 weeks to the US and at least 3 to 5 weeks in Europe.
