One of Each Dye Kit

This listing is for a bundled package of our four very popular beginner Natural Dyeing Kits. Each kits is sold separately, but buy them together to save and also enjoy free shipping!

Below is information about each of the four kits:


INDIGO KIT
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Indigo bearing plants are the world's best source of natural, true, colourfast blue. A magical dyestuff that has been used around the world as a dye since pre-historic times, the culture and wonder that surrounds this plant is immense.

Indigo cannot be dyed in the same way as other dyes, but must be used to create a "living" vat, which is achieved through a sort of fermentation process.

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This kit contains the pre-measured ingredients to create one organic fructose vat, with which you can dye quite a bit of fibre - how much a kit will dye depends on a few things, including how dark you want the blue to be, and what fibres you use. But it will dye a lot! As a general ballpark, you could expect to dye at least 5 yards of a medium weight cotton such as a quilting cotton, to a medium blue, and probably more, and darker if you wish.

The vat can remain active for several weeks, depending on how much you use it.

Indigo can be used to dye any natural fibres, not synthetics. You can dye fabric, yarn, garments, wood, anything that you like, and any fibre, such as cotton, linen, wool, silk, bamboo, rayon, hemp, etc. A small amount of synthetic fibre content such as 5% spandex in a garment, or 5% nylon in a sock yarn, is no problem.

The kit also includes comprehensive instructions on how to create and use the vat.

Please note that the dyed fibres in the photos are not included. They are there to show you what colours you can expect to achieve with the dye. You can also dye much much more fibre than shown in the photos.

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Contents:

25g indigofera tinctoria powder, extracted from the plant
50g pickling lime (calx)
75g fructose sugar



NATURAL DYE KIT
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The world of natural dyes is vast and varied, and this kit gives the beginner dyer a perfect introduction into the beauty and wonder of creating colour from nature.

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Included are the ingredients to dye around 4 metres of lightweight fabric, or around 600g of yarn, light to medium shades of pink, orange, yellow and purple. In other words, you will be able to dye 1 metre each of the four colours, for a total of 4 metres. Small garments or other items can also be used - it is up to you!

The dyes can only be used to dye natural fibres, not synthetic, but can be used with either plant (i.e. cotton, linen, rayon, hemp, bamboo, etc) or animal (i.e. wool, silk, cashmere, alpaca).

In order to be colourfast, fibres must first be mordanted, or treated with a soluble metal. Plant (cellulose) fibres such as cotton must also be treated with a tannin.

This kit includes alum (a foodsafe ingredient made of potassium aluminum sulfate) as the mordant, and tannin powder made from the galls formed on oak trees.

It also contains logwood chips (haematoxylon campechianum), which yield gorgeous soft purples, osage sawdust (maclura pomifera) for yellow, ground madder root (rubia tinctoria) for lovely peachy orange shades, and cochineal (dactylopius coccus) for pink.

Comprehensive instructions in the kit will take you through the step by step process of preparing your fibres and dyeing with these dried dyestuffs.

Please note that the dyed fibres in the photos are not included. They are there to show you what colours you can expect to achieve with the dye.

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Contents:

90 g alum
30g gallnut
15g logwood
15g osage
15g madder
7g cochineal



INDIGO BLOCKPRINTING KIT
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Print on fabric with natural indigo powder, using this all in one kit.

Indigo (indigofera tinctoria) is the natural world's only source of colour fast blue. However, it is not soluble in water, and so needs to be applied in a very unique way in order to use it as a paste for block printing or silk screening.

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This kit includes the ingredients to create a paste with the indigo, as well as the additives for the bath to fix the paste to the fabric, and the ingredients to put the indigo through the classic "reduction" process, so that it is permanent and colourfast.

It also includes comprehensive instructions for creating, applying, fixing and reducing the paste.

The kit is meant to be used with lino cuts, but can also be used with wood blocks and even silk screening. These materials are not included.

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Contents:

Indigofera Tinctoria Extract Powder
Sodium Alginate
Fructose Powder
Pickling Lime (calcium hydroxide)
Soda Ash (sodium carbonate)
Salt (sodium chloride)

CLAY RESIST KIT
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Our newest beginner kit - to be used with our very popular indigo kit.

Contains the pre-measured ingredients to create a thickened clay paste, which you can print onto fabric using the method of your choice - paint, stencil, silk screen, wood block, lino cut print, etc.

Once printed and dried, you dye your fabric in indigo and the dye will resist where you have printed the clay, leaving these areas undyed while the rest of your fabric becomes blue. This technique only works with indigo, since clay paste is soluble in water and would wash off in other dye baths, but the unique qualities of the indigo vat mean that the clay holds up in the vat. When you are finished dyeing, you simply wash off the paste and reveal your design.

The paste can be used on any fabric made of natural fibres, such as cotton, linen, wool, silk, etc. We recommend using fabric without too much texture, and that you begin by using smaller pieces of fabric, rather than one large. Coloured or previously dyed fabric works as well. If your fabric is yellow, for example, it will remain yellow where you apply the paste, and will become green where it mixes with the blue from the indigo vat.

The quantity of fabric you can print and dye will depend on your design - if your design has a lot of "white space" or areas that will be resist printed, the paste will get used up quickly. If your design has finer lines and smaller areas of resist, you will be able to print more fabric. As a general ballpark, you can expect to resist print 2-4 yards of fabric.

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Contents:

15g magnesium sulphate (epsom salts)
30g gum arabic
50g calcium bentonite clay

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We also sell stencils to use with the kit, as seen in the photos

Looking for things to dye? Visit the Blanks for Dyeing section if our shop to find white and unbleached fabric, yarn, and small accessories, all ready to dye!

For more questions, including what else you need in order to use these kits, refer to our FAQs.