Dye - Fustic

Chlorophora tinctoria extract.

From the heartwood of a tree from the Mulberry family, as a dye Fustic yields bright yellows, deep golds and oranges. With Copper Mordant it dyes olive greens and with Iron Mordant it dyes dark greens. Fustic can be used as a base colour with Indigo to give greens and teals.a good underdye with indigo to make forest greens and teals.

Fustic has a high light and washfastness although exposure to strong sunlight may cause them to become darker.Use alum mordant at 15% WOF for both protein and cellulose fibres. There's enough Tannin in Fustic to avoid using any Tannin.

Before 1856, Natural dyes were used in time honoured techniques (as far back as 1500BC) but once synthetic dyes were became commercially viable textile dyers and artisans moved from traditional natural dyes to synthetic dyes to colour their cloth and fibre. 

The Natural Dye range will dye any natural fibre using a handful of non-toxic mordants and additives to help fix the dye and also give you more colour variations. Natural dyeing is very much about reconnecting with the past - apart from using the plant materials you have at hand in your own garden, there are a number of traditional Natural Dyes and extracts including Indigo, Madder, Cochineal and Fustic.

By combining different dyes, mordants and depths of shade, you will produce an amazing palette of deep to subtle pastel colours. We hope you enjoy your Natural Dyeing adventure!