Natural Plant Dyeing

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The fox or wild grape Witis j
Idbrusca) is a fast-spreading vine .
of waste places ,and countryside
from New England to Georgia.
Its berries yield a purple dye. _
Many of them jth copper or iron sulfate gIany of the above plants are also
produce greens of a variety of qualities. _ iltlportant for orange colors. Special. riote
These greens with a~ilnlonin .eithrl: inten-. . is made in this respect to the entire group ’
si$ or shift to tans &d browns. In the of Bidens, to the related genus Corqopsis, .!:‘:’
case nf goldenrod the shift KIN hc tn D an*d tb Prunus. ‘Some of the colors are
excellent blacks. intense ‘enough- t-0 vie with madder ’
T’arious speci& ‘of Btrld~ir~tr, annuals (Rubia tiytoyum) for honors and many ,
of the southern coastal’ plaid and the: Gulf er~n produce the gil~Ilf?t COlOrs associated
. . States, occur in lillgrf? roloriies in the poor with madder.. Bedstraws (Galium), which
*‘. soils of the pine barrens. They are excel- :lq! rlose.r+tives of madder,%rq’common ‘,
, I lent Ilot only for yellows aud 1J~ilSS Gt,loYs
but for icy cool greens if alum and
but thti ‘roots are small and the” ability to
produce’?he qa\!le colors as madder seems L
copper sulfate are used. Inore n’rademic than useful. ’
The grass genus Andropogo?z, in ,a11 its xX American r mistletoe (Phorudendron) , *
many specirq’ranks among the best and is Inoidnlitcd w!th al;lm,” emerges ,from ,the ’ .
one of the re;ognized yellows for bottom- dyebath pallid ‘ind ,pool:,until rinsed-with
ing* with indigo for .greens. With alum alnlllonia wat’e;, when it chnlqes to briland
copper it produces iti ‘own greeni& liant yellow: Jf stored overnight, wet, it
without indigo orerdpeing. Audropogou often changes to a lovqly chartreuse.
OCCURS throughout the East either in sin- The4 green ~+ulls of ‘black walnut and
gle-stemmed plants or in larg? easily col- hutternilt trees a$: well known for their
lected clumps, according to species. The intense brown$ Hickory hulls cati be use,d \ ”
genus is found along rvadsides, in waste
places and poor soils. Tt is superb for
for. unusual ,gra.ys of remarkable clarity. ,_ ‘,
Second-groith Anierican chestnits often : .
1
” drying for winter use.
I
j)rodurr burrs. that have high tinctorial
power and &l’so”give a varkty of b?ci?Vqs _ . ”
,;-I. depending ~lpon’the,moyd.ants used.
*Bottoming involves dyeing a second c,plor Fetterbush or d&g hobble (Leu oboe
over a first for a blend. It is a standard ,fo7rtcr)rkiann; fc+erly Lhcatesbgei 5 ‘, esmethod
for ,obtaining greens. n peciaUy in late winter, g$es’unusual. ayd
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20
t,