Natural Plant Dyeing

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COLOR’ IN ICELAND
.~I;l,ll~~liA .HJ&rI14d$tir, tll~~~jiralidc
,dni~~r of lslnndic cr:ifPts. 11~ written
ii lwa2litiful book on weaving in Icelandic1
hon~es. 1 t is called I-E’)ICIC?ILY (Menningars,jtids
Puhlisheixl Reykjnvik, 1966).
lf:lttJGtil nlrnfiL)ns that ill Ivrl:~nd all
dycling Of yarn is done in the homes but
that the natural colors of the wool are
uwd very much for everyday wear. Many
- pil’tures in her book show how the whites;
g~lys, l~ro~vns and hlncks give fine color
variations to woven artic!l&.
Sillw Ilt:ic*k w~)l is in grr:lf d~~mnnd for’
c~lotliing in Tcclnnd but the supply of
f~:itulxll~~ 1)1:1(.1; wool is far fr0111 sullic-i.c*llt,
fl1(1 I car*l:llldica ~VOIIIOI~ c*arrird OH :I
1lwJ 5;trn~~l(~- until thlly found a way of
dylll~r :1 I- good black by using their own
Ii:lti?(a Iil;Ltcrinl.
For Illany years something known as
“tlll~ b#gh< ~‘hllt” (.s.or.f~) was t.rird, but
.1 111~~ i~olor rlil~lrc~l ol’f. Rl~ick liiud front the
hogs 4 ur)r!i r,/~tti) atltl also bearberry
/ .I ).l”fI).~tfl(ll/!//rlb 111’(1-If)..\/), wliic~li is cilllrd
.slJrtlrl~/rl~/
in Iwl:liidic~, wwv uscad fill
some time. They yielded a black dye, but
it was ntlitht~r rltlep nor durnbl6. Finally it
was discovered that the combination of
blnc~k IIIII~ and hearberry gave a beautiful
and fast black color.
Astrid Swens’on
The Iceland-moss (Cetraria
‘-1
cf. G.‘LvVenring -
islandico),
also called “mountain-grass” in Iceland,
is widely distributed in northern countries,
inchding the northern United
States.
to gray,
It is a paper-thin/lichen
olive-green &hen--wet,
.‘_ .
brown
and is -
fourid on both soil and ‘rocks in tangled
masses. Beyond its use in dyeing, according
to G. G. Nearing in his The
Lichen Book, this lichen has been irqportant
as food for humans a.nd animals.
, -
&digoLhas..heen imported. to $&&.L -e -.I -
since the earIF 19th century for more a
color-fast and clear blues than any native ‘8,
plant could yield. It is used with urine as
:I mordant in the old way,qen though in
most other mestern countries ammonia is
now substituted for urine, in similar dye- ’ .
ing processes. In Iceland the blue from
iudigb is called “stone-color.”
, However, with all these ckors, n&ral .
as well as dyed, the very. import&t red-
“the queen’s color”-was missing. Icelan-
(lice WOW& had tried for centuries to find _
a Il;ttivc! plrlllt that wo$ld give a red color ,JZ
slid, filliiil~, also in the rly 19th centud-. /
their esperiments led to “&, a ‘scovery.
First, the yarn was boiled w&h “fjulln- ”
!/r.iis (iiioulitaiI1-grass)-the lichen Cetrcz-
~icc i.sla&ick Then it was treated for a.
muplt~ of weeks with stale nrinh from
l)rcgnant cows (sometimes with a little of
tllo national strong drink “black death”
;iddcd to it). The result was what first 4as
c~:~lld the “pow-urine red,? $iter, nal!xed
.“Tcrlnndic 1lighArcd. ” The color is blukk
Iwl, “the ki[2,scarlet.” ’ !
Fiwrl note: In Sweden Cetraria islan- .
dim is used with alum-mordanted /yarn
and an ordinary
brown coIors. +
dyebath ‘for y+%vish-’
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