Description

Mordants assist many natural dyes to bond with the wool, silk or other yarn or fabric being dyed, they can make a world of difference to the results and satisfaction you gain from dyeing. We recommend pre mordanting with Alum (Aluminium Potassium Sulphate) at a rate of approximately 10% of the dry weight of your fabric or yarn (wool or silk for plant based fibres please contact us for instructions). Alum mordant baths can be cooled and poured into a plastic container for reuse at a later date and recharged with a lower amount of mordant than you would use with a new bath. After final use they can safely be poured out onto the garden. For more detailed instructions please email us.
Use Alum mordanted yarn or fabric thoroughly re-wetted with almost all of our Sustainably harvested and UK grown dyes and many of our Responsibly sourced imported dyes

Iron mordant (Ferrous sulphate) can be added to the dyebaths of these dyes to make earthy olive, khaki and forest greens, greys, mauves and even close to black. Use a tiny amount (less than 2% of the dry weight of yarn or fabric) as this mordant can make wool brittle. Iron can also be used on plant based fabric especially for botanical prints.

We are delighted to have collaborated with Threads of Life,  Bebali Foundation Plant Mordant Project to bring you Symplocos leaf (from the aluminium accumulating plant Symplocos cochichinesis). This will enable UK dyers to create good fast colours 100% from plants, whilst supporting indigenous Indonesian textile artists. See here for further information and recipes. Please note this is not the more commonly available Symplocos racemosa bark, which can impart a brownish hue.

Soda Ash (Sodium carbonate) is a useful alkali for adjusting the pH of your dyebaths and for making a Woad or Indigo vat.
Citric Acid can be used to adjust pH in the other direction.
Sodium Hydrosulphite and Thiourea Dioxide are reducing agents for use when making a Woad or Indigo vat.
Universal Indicator papers are pH 1-14 and come in a book of 80.
Sensible precautions should be taken when using all chemicals  especially fine powders.