Name: Barbara
Message: Hi, I am dyeing with dirt and I have read your natural dye page and if I use tea as a mordant do I need to use soda ash as well?  Would I soak the cotton t-shirt in the soda ash first, or add the soda ash to the tea? Thanks 

Soda ash is used for dyeing with reactive dyes, which are synthetic. Since you are not using reactive dyes, there's probably no reason at all for you to use soda ash. Don't bother to use soda ash with any other type of dye besides synthetic reactive dye, unless you have a recipe from an experienced dyer which explicitly says to use it.

I have not tried dyeing with tea and mud, and so I cannot give you a recipe. The mud that you use should contain a high concentration of iron. The tea would be used as a source of tannic acid. Another source of tannic acid, such as the pure tannic acid you can buy from a natural dyes supply house or a wine brewing supplier, might work better since it would be stronger, but if you tea-dye heavily enough, you should be able to get a significant amount of tannic acid on your fabric.

Here is an interesting article about the traditional use of iron-containing mud with tannin-containing plant extracts in Japan:
"Kumejima Pongee: A mordanting technique passed down in the 'home of pongee'"
...and here is one about mud dyeing in Africa:
Mud Cloth - Woven
It appears to be a very slow and painstaking procedure.

On the "Mordants and Metal Dyes" page from "Anne Liese's Fibers and Stuff" website, there are some recipes for dyeing with pure tannic acid and pure ferrous sulfate (known traditionally to dyers as copperas). She recommends boiling them together with your fabric until the desired shade is reached; after a paragraph on producing pale iron buff, adds "alternately, bury your fiber in iron-rich mud for a week or more."

The process of natural dyeing is far more difficult and takes much more time than the use of modern fiber reactive dyes, such as Procion MX dyes. You will need to be patient and persistent. If you want to spend less time and effort on experimenting, I recommend that you consider ordering Kimberly Baxter Packwood's CD ROM video, Rust & Clay Dyeing, at The Prairie Fibers Company. I have not seen this video myself and so cannot provide a review, but I know from reading her posts on various dye-related mailing lists that Ms. Packwood has spent a great deal of time and effort on her experiments with rust and clay dyeing, so her experience might benefit you.

Please let me know the results of your experiments with dyeing with tea and mud.


(Please help support this web site. Thank you.)