Before I fill in the backlog of dyes I thought I might prove that I have been working on this project! This is a sample box I made up for demos with the wool top I’ve dyed so far. I am not yet confident in my ability to maintain a consistent heat to keep the wool from felting too much, so I’ve ordered a thermometer to help with that. 
let me see if I can label this effectively:
The jars:
Left most side jars: top is cochineal, middle is ferrous sulphate and bottom is brazilwood.
Right jars: top is weld, bottom is madder root
The wool samples ( knotted at the top, I thought they might be cute displayed on a mini line? )
from left to right:
- diluted logwood
- madder root – I had a redder sample as well – this one is more orange – but it met with an unfortunate accident while cleaning up.
- weld
- brazilwood and ferrous sulphate and oak gall
- brazilwood
- elderberries
- logwood
- birch bark
- almond skins
- more weld, different amount of alum in mordant
In the bottom right little drawer I’m just showing the silk threads I am branching this project out to include. I’ve experimented with elderberry on one silk strand already but it mottled a bit, I think I left it too long. I’m really looking forward to dyeing silk, it has a more exciting result simply because of it’s own natural lustre under the colour.
(EDIT: I’ve just realised how fuzzy this photo is, I’ll replace it with one taken in daylight tomorrow to give a better idea of the colours)
Time traveling Órlaith 
I’m super intrigued by the colour you’ve achieved with birch bark. I’ve used it before, as I was lead to believe you can get pink from it, but ended up with a beige colour! I look forward to the newer photo 🙂
I’ll have the newer photo up this evening, sorry for the delay. My birch bark came out beige too, and I too was expecting a pink, certainly there was a nice pink coming from the peeled bark itself, I can only assume the minerals in my water affected it. The pink one you’re looking at could be the almond skins?
Thanks for putting the new photo up 🙂 even the beige you achieved is lovely and warm! I’ve been doing some more research around using bark, and it would seem that extracting the pigment with an alkaline seems to work. So, I’ve put some birch bark in wood-ash water to soak for a few weeks – let’s see what that does!
Oh interesting, will be very interested to see that. My current theory is that birch bark might be pinker in spring when the sap is rising
Reblogged this on The Middlegate Key.