Here are 4 Natural Dyes you can use without the need of a mordant.
Most natural dyes really need a good mordanting, either aluminium-based mordants, copper, ferrous sulfate or tanning using a tannin-rich plant material. Mordanting is important to improve the light- and wash fastness of your textiles and it intensifies the color outcome on your fabric.
Some natural dyes have enough tannin to be light- and wash fast without the assistance of alum, or iron. These are called substantive dyes. I have written a blog about the difference between adjective and substantive dyes before here.
I have chosen 4 beautiful shades for you and dye samples with 50% WOF for each, meaning that I used half the weight of the dry textiles in natural dyes.
When we compare dyes like this, it is easier to see the potency of the dyes; some dyes will be completely exhausted after one dye round, and others will still have plenty of color left for a second bath.
It is nice to have a few dyes like these at hand that you can use without having to do the work of mordanting.
Dyes used;
The first two examples of natural dyes are in chips, chunks should always be soaked in cold water overnight to extract the dye properly. The two last ones are powders, which can be simply dissolved in water.
Dyes and fabrics were heated together for two hours to a simmer, and cooled down before taking out and washing with a ph neutral detergent.
Top samples that are darker received a dip in 1% Fe solution. All samples left on various types of protein fabrics, right is all cellulose.
Horse Chestnut
Black Walnut Hulls
Quebracho
Cutch
After dyeing the horse chestnut was exhausted, walnut was also quite exhausted. Quebracho and Cutch had plenty of power left for another round of dyeing.
Let me know in the comments which one is your favorite!