Walnut Dye Recipe

The Recipe:

1. Starting with 1 gal of water in my dye pot and adding 1 tbs of water softener;




2. I have put 1 cup of Walnut Hull Powder into a stocking and added it to my dye pot;




3. Bring to a boil for about 1/2 hour;




4. Add another gal of water and bring to a boil;




5. Add one coil of commercial cane in this case I've also added a small amount of Honeysuckle as well;




6. Simmer for 1/2 hour;




7. Let stand for as long as it takes to get the color you want - I'm probably going to leave this batch at least 3 or 4 days in the dye pot;




8. At least once during the day I again bring the dye pot to a simmer and then leave it again over night;




9. I removed the dyed material from the dye pot on the 5th day, you may want to leave it longer if you want a darker color.
   
   

I have done this batch a bit different to see how it comes out. I am first going to dye the cane in the Walnut dye and then after it appears to have gotten as dark as I can get it, will add it to an iron solution, the color modifier, to see what result I get.

This can also be done in an all in one dye method and that is usually the preferred method, however, I'm trying to see just exactly how much iron would be required to make it that nice chocolate brown. Or if perhaps adding the dyed cane to an iron solution afterwards would make it darker or not work as well.

Once again this dye recipe comes from Sandra Pallie of Oklahoma, she however, uses the rusty nail method for the iron, where I use the iron crystals. Not many rusty nails in my area...:)

Photo at the bottom above taken on the 5th day of steeping in the dye pot. It's beginning to rain in Sunny Southern Cal so might take awhile for this to dry. The photo at the top is the honeysuckle which was dyed in the same dye pot at the same time as the cane. Neither have had iron added to them and are still wet from the dye pot. The top two photos are of the dried honeysuckle and cane.

The top photos are also after I put it in an iron solution. I just dipped and swished these a couple of times in the iron solution, so as you can see they really came out dark. I used a fraction of the iron that I used in the dye in one method.

I have also discovered another source of making iron solution is steel wool pads. If you add say one pad to a pint or quart of water with some vinegar, you will also get a very nice iron solution for dyes.