Pomegranate Recipe

I use a stainless steel stock pot for dyeing with iron mordants.

1. Add 2 gals of water to your dye pot;
2. Add 2 large Pomegranates cut up into small pieces, this can be dried or fresh. I just happened to use a fresh one. I cut the entire fruit up including the skin; put the pieces in a nylon stocking so that you will not need to strain the dye material before putting the cane or other material into the dye;
3. Add 1 cup of salt. I use plain table salt;
4. Now heat the entire mixture and boil it for at least 1 hour;
5. After 1 hour add the cane and simmer for 1/2 hour;
6. After 1/2 hour remove from heat and let stand over night.

The resulting color is shown in the photo above. Alum or Iron can also be added. Alum is usually added before dyeing but the Iron is considered a color modifier and is added after dyeing. You can mix these right into the dye pot all at the same time or you can put your cane into an Alum mixture before adding the cane to the dye pot. I am using Iron as a color modifier so I have dyed the cane using just the pomegranate and then added the Iron after I let it sit overnight because I want to see how the color is changed.

Judging from the color results I would likewise use more than 1 pomegranate for this, probably 2 at minimum and 4 for a nice dark color.