More Cutch

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 reed that was just dipped and swished in the Cutch twice. The resulting color was just enough to take away that white not dyed look that reed has.

Henna Dye Recipe

This is the recipe used for the Henna dye pictured above.

Into your dye pot put:

1. 1 cup of salt;


2. Now add 2 gallons of water;


3. Stir in about a tablespoon of water softener, if you have hard water;


4. The Henna comes in power form, so before adding it to the water, put about 1/2 cup of power into a small bowl and dissolve it in hot water;


5. Now add the Henna paste to your dye pot;


6. Bring the dye pot to a boil;


7. Add your cane or reed;


8. Simmer to the desired darkness.

Now this picture above is of honeysuckle, the dark brown died with the Cutch in the preceding recipe, the light color is the Henna. As you can see there is a very light look to it and a slight brown which doesn't show up good in the photo.

I originally tried to dye some reed in this Henna and got absolutely no color change on the reed. The reed was just as white after dyeing as it was when I originally put it in the dye pot but it looked really water logged, so I would not use this for reed again. I did not have any cane to try in it, but judging from the honeysuckle it might do better on cane.

Cutch Recipe

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. 1 cup of salt;
2. Now add 2 gallons of water;
3. Stir in about a tablespoon of water softener, if you have hard water;
4. The Cutch comes in power form, so before adding it to the water, put about 1/2 cup of power into a small bowl and dissolve it in hot water;
5. Now add the Cutch paste to your dye pot;

6. Bring the dye pot to a boil;

7. Add your cane or reed;

8. Simmer to the desired darkness.

Cutch does not need heat to dye with, however heating the dye mixture will dye much faster than say living it over night with this particular dye.

The photo above was both cane and reed that were the first to be dyed in this dye pot, you can see you will get a nice dark chocolate brown from it.

The 1/2 cup of Cutch really dyed a lot of reed and cane, so you might want to use say just 1/4 of a cup depending on how much material you want to dye. The 1/2 cup I used dyed 3 coils of reed and 1 coil of cane plus some honeysuckle. It was still giving me a good dye, so I also put some of the dye in a gallon plastic jar, froze it and will see if it works on any future dye batches.

Common Plants for Natural Dyes

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 about anything is usable.

Plants for Natural Dyes:

• Cutch, Catechu
• Common Yarrow
• Hollyhocks
• Dyer's Alkanet
• Onions - Red, Yellow or Brown - just the outer skin is used
• Alder
• Dyer's chamomile
• Barberry
• Blackberry
• Cranberry
• Blue Berry
• Birch
• Annatto Seeds - anywhere from orange to brown depending on the mordant you use and when
• Brazilwood - a really nice red to browns
• Pot Marigold
• Heather
• Safflower - this likewise gives a color from yellows to reds
• Fustic, Dyer's Mulberry (wood chips are used) yellows to greens
• Coreopsis, Tickseed
• Dyer's coreopsis
• Yellow cosmos
• Hawthorn
• Turmeric (roots are used)
• Dahlia
• Wild/Domestic carrot, Queen Anne's lace
• Eucalyptus
• Ash
• Lady's bedstraw, Yellow bedstraw
• Dyer's greenweed, Woadwaxen
• Logwood 9 wood chips, graules, or powder)
• Ivy (leaves and berries)
• Hardy hibiscus, Rose mallow (flowers only)
• Saint-John's-Wort
• Indigo
• Woad, Dyer's woard
• Henna
• Osage orange, Bois d'arc (wood chips, shavings or extract)
• Mahonia
• Apple (leaves, bark)
• Bog myrtle, Sweet gale
• Daffodil (flowers)
• Japanese indigo, Dyer's knotweed
• Cherry, Plum, Peach, Almond, Apricot (leaves and bark)
• Blackthorn
• Bracken, Brake
• Sanderswood, Saunderswood (powder or wood chips)
• Pomegranate
• Pear (leaves and bark)
• Oak (oak galls good source of Tannin)
• Weld, Dyer's rocket
• Buckthorn
• Rhubarb
• Staghorn sumac
• Madder
• Blood root
• Rudbeckia, Coneflower, Black-eyed Susan
• Dock, Sorrel, Curled dock
• Willow (leafy stems and bark)
• Elder, Elderberry
• Goldenrod
• Rowan, Mountain Ash
• Comfrey
• French marigold, African marigold
• Tansy
• Dandelion (flowers and leaves) shades of yellows and greens
• Elm (bark and leaves)
• Nettle (plant tops)
• Poison Sumac or Green Moss from trees will give you a Mauve color

So when you have all those dandelions in your lawn - use them for dyes - using both the leaves and flowers gives you some wonderful lime greenish colors!