Mordents

Natural dyeing is usually a 2 step process. The yarn or fibre must be soaked in a mordant, that prepares the fibre to absorb the natural dye substance.

Making an alum mordant, used for natural dyeing
Time Required: 90 minutes

1. Use clean, scoured wool or yarn.
2. Fill a large pot with clean water and heat.
3. Weigh the yarn or clean, dry fleece.
4. Using 10% Alum (potassium aluminum sulfate) to weight of fibre, mix the Alum into the hot water.
5. Using 5% Tartaric Acid to weight of fibre, add the Tartaric acid to the hot water mixture.
6. Rinse the wool so that it is damp.
7. Add the wool or skeins of yarn into the hot Alum mixture.
8. Make sure that the wool is all covered by the water, if not, add more water to the pot.
9. Simmer the mordant mixture for x-about an hour at 90 degrees Celsius.
10. Remove the yarns from the Alum mixture.
11. The Alum mixture can be reused by adding 1/2 the amount of Alum and Tartaric Acid.

Tips:
* If dyeing skeins of yarn, make sure that the skeins are tied securely, but loosely in at least 3 places, to avoid tangling.
* The mordanted yarns can be dyed immediately, or dried and stored for later natural dyeing.
* The alum/tartaric acid mixture is suitable for wools, silks and other protein fibres.

A natural dye recipe for a Tin mordant.
A Tin (stannous chloride) mordant can be used to obtain different colour variations than Alum (another commonly used mordant for natural dyeing.
Time Required: 90 minutes

1. Use clean, scoured wool or yarn.
2. Fill a large pot with clean water and heat.
3. Weigh the yarn or clean, dry fleece.
4. Using .5% Tin to weight of fibre, mix the Tin into the hot water.
5. Rinse the wool so that it is damp.
6. Add the wool or skeins of yarn into the hot Tin mordant mixture.
7. Make sure that the wool is all covered by the water, if not, add more water to the pot.
8. Simmer the mordant mixture for x-about an hour at 90 degrees Celsius.
9. Remove the yarns from the Tin mixture.
10. The Tin mordant mixture can be reused by adding 1/2 the amount of Tin as previously used.

Tips:
* If dyeing skeins of yarn, make sure that the skeins are tied securely, but loosely in at least 3 places, to avoid tangling.
* The mordanted yarns can be dyed immediately, or dried and stored for later natural dyeing.
* The Tin mordant mixture is suitable for wools, silks and other protein fibres.

Linen and cotton yarns require a different mordant preparation prior to using natural dyes.
Time Required: 90 minutes

1. Use clean, scoured wool or yarn.
2. Fill a large pot with clean water and heat.
3. Weigh the yarn or clean, dry fleece.
4. Using 20% Alum to weight of fibre, mix the Alum into the hot water.
5. Using 10% Tara Powder to weight of fibre, place the Tara Powder into a nylon stocking or small bag. Add it to the hot water mixture.
6. Rinse the wool so that it is damp.
7. Add the wool or skeins of yarn into the hot Alum/Tara mixture.
8. Make sure that the wool is all covered by the water, if not, add more water to the pot.
9. Simmer the mordant mixture for x-about an hour at 90 degrees Celsius.
10. Remove the yarns from the mordant mixture.
11. The Alum/Tara mixture can be reused by adding 1/2 the amount of Alum and Tara powder as previously

Tips:
* If dyeing skeins of yarn, make sure that the skeins are tied securely, but loosely in at least 3 places, to avoid tangling.
* The mordanted yarns can be dyed immediately, or dried and stored for later natural dyeing.
* The mordant is suitable for cottons, linens and other bast fibres.