Dyeing is a very ancient art; from the earliest times of the ancient civilisations till within about forty years ago there had been no essential change in it, and not much change of any kind. Up to the time of the discovery of the process of Prussian-blue dyeing in about 1810 (it was known as a pigment thirty or forty years earlier), the only changes in the art were the result of the introduction of the American insect dye (cochineal), which gradually superseded the European one (kermes), and the American wood-dyes now known as logwood and Brazil-wood: the latter differs little from the Asiatic and African Red Saunders, and other red dye-woods; the former has cheapened and worsened black-dyeing, in so far as it has taken the place of the indigo-vat as a basis. The American quercitron bark gives us also a useful additional yellow dye.
via www.marxists.org
I've been doing some research on William Morris for a Series of colorways that I'm doing for Saffron Dyeworks. I ran across this article that he wrote on dyeing. Of course for me I'm not using Natural dyes but I still find it very interesting. Maybe one day I'll pull out my natural dye supplies and fire up an Indigo pot just like we did in grad school. That was really fun. I love the look of natural dyed yarns. I keep saying one day I'll get back to it. One day...........
