Cherokee Natural Dyes

I must say, I really didn't know quite what to expect trying this particular dye on reed and cane. This is my first attempt at using thi...

This is Pterocarpus Santalinus by technical name. I use it here because in some books it's called Sanders Wood or Sandal Wood. This ph...

If you're looking for a really great red for cane give Brazil wood a try. Recipe for Brazil Wood on Cane: 1. Soak 4 oz of Brazil Wood pi...

These photos are still from the same dye pot shown below and as you can see the color gets progressively lighter. The very top photo is ree...

This is the recipe used for the Henna dye pictured above. Into your dye pot put: 1 cup of salt; Now add 2 gallons of water; Stir in about a ...

This is the recipe used for the Cutch dye pictured above. The above photo shows the dye on reed and cane. Into your dye pot put: 1 cup of ...

I'm just going to list some of the most common plants which can and are used in Natural Dyes. I've not tried all of them but just ab...

To see more photos of these materials made into baskets go here: Cherokee Baskets with these dyes

There are a lot of variations for using this particular dye stuff. I just picked the simplest. Cochineal Basic Recipe: You will first need t...

Osage Orange Recipe: Add 1 gal of water to your dye pot; Add one cup of plain table salt - the salt works as a leveling agent, which gives y...