Pure Tinctoria's natural dye extracts are produced from barks, woods, leaves, flowers, roots and insect secretions which are dried and ground. The pigments are extracted with water, distilled and vacuum or spray dried. They are extremely concetrated and are quick and easy to use.



For accurate dyeing they are measeured as a percentage of the weight of the dry fibre, yarn or fabric and can be applied to these in a dye bath or painted and printed onto them. In addition they can be painted and printed onto paper.



To fix the dyes to the fibres, yarns or fabrics mordants are used before or after dyeing, painting or printing.



In line with our safety and environmentally conscious ethos, we reccommend pre-mordanting animal fibres, such as wool and silk, with alum (potassium aluminium sulphate), the safest of mordant. The other mordants we use are natural dyes in their own right, but also contain tannin and can be used as mordants for vegetable fibres such as cotton; Oak Gall, Myrobalan, Pomegranate and Cutch are in this catagory.



However, other colour-modifying mordants, can be used in small amounts, as additives in the dye pot. This yealds sets of related colours. We have instructions sheets for making colour modifying mordants such as iron water and copper water.



Indigo requires a completely different process to ensure that the dye dissolves in water and we use a natural method that requires yeast and washing soda instead of nasty chemicals or urine!