Dyes from American Native Plants: A Practical Guide

By Ronald J. Tyrl and Lynne Richards

The dyeing of textiles and other materials is a rewarding and delightful way to bring the colors of nature to daily living. In our technological age, dyes from plants offer subtle and diverse hues unavailable from synthetic dyestuffs. They connect practitioners to the environment as well as to the crafts and history of our ancestors. Dyes from "native" plants offer a special source of satisfaction and beauty. In this fascinating book, the authors have compiled extensive information to bring the techniques, plants, and lore of natural dyeing within every reader's reach. Chapters include discussions of color theory, dye equipment, dye processes, mordants, and easy-to-follow instructions for processing plants and dyeing fabrics. The core of the book is an exhaustive reference to the hundreds of colors that can be obtained from 158 commonly encountered North American plant species. The authors include detailed records of the various plant parts needed to produce different colors, cross-referencing each color to the Munsell color system, an internationally accepted standard for describing color. Finally, the book offers a practical botanical field guide that allows readers to locate and identify each plant in the book. Beautiful color photographs round out the volume.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 088192668X
• ISBN13: 9780881926682
• Release Date: June 2005
• Publisher: Timber Press
• Length: 340 Pages
• Weight: 2.15 lbs.
• Dimensions: 9.3" x 1.0" x 6.3"

Customer Reviews

Great American Dye Plants

This book included a lot of plants that I had never considered in my dyeing process. Good practical advice.

Dyes from American Native Plants: A Practical Guide

This book is awesome and all ready looking well used. Can hardly wait to take it with me out for an adventure

A definite must-have for the natural dyer!

I happened across this book at my local spinning guild in Los Angeles. At first, it looked like the typical how-to book with limited new information, but as I leafed through it, I was immediately hooked by all the plants I DIDN'T know. This book is definitely going to stay in the "most-used resources" part of my book collection. I'd recommend it for anyone interested in finding out more plants to toss in the dyepot! It's also good for those libraries in the central and eastern parts of the United States. Which leads me to one of my quibbles with this book: it concentrates on the Eastern and Mid-West portions of the United States, and leaves out many dye plants common to the western states. Artimesia californica (California Sagebrush), all the Quercus species (California oaks) - these are the most notable for my area. It should also be noted that there are many good dye plants that are NOT native to North America, such as Oxalis pes-caprae (Bermuda buttercup), and Cytisus scoparius (Scotch broom), and these are not listed in this book. It is, of course, the authors' prerogative to focus strictly on natives. However, dyers will need to use other resources to find the non-natives. I do like that this book includes a description of the fermentation dye process, and the Munsell color notations of the colors given. However, in order to use this as a dye book, I'd like to see the colors and processes listed under each plant instead of in a separate chapter. I'm definitely going to make my own notations in this book -- which should tell you how impressed this librarian is! Ruth Schooley