Coastal dyes..
botanical inks
Coconut husk - Mango leaf - Dragon's Blood - Palo De Brazil - Zapote Negro Cochineal - Red Earth - Rosemary
A powerful collection of Oaxacan plants and minerals..
These past two months I’ve been living on the coast of Oaxaca, exploring local natural dye plants, minerals and insects to play with. There’s several I’m already familiar with such as avocado and rosemary, and some I’d never used or even heard of before…Zapote Negro!
The pictures in this post describe a collection of Coconut husk, Mango leaf, Dragon's Blood, Palo De Brazil, Red Earth, Zapote Negro, Cochineal, Roesmary leaf, Avocado skin and a dry berry I forget the name of…?!
Coconut is in SUCH abundance and a brilliant compost dye to make use of - I hear of so many people, restaurants and businesses complaining of not knowing how to dispose of the multitude of big empty nuts after the juice and meat has been eaten…It’s so obvious that they be recycled into dyes..! They do often stain clothing with their colour so surely theres a dye potential..
We used them fresh in this experiment and didnt get much colour, so it seems that this is a plant best fermented or dried first for use..
My research told me that Mango leaves are best used dried, rather than fresh..Its easy to find dry leaves scattered on the ground under the endless huge Mango trees here.. These beautiful leaves are roughly broken up and stewed in boiling water for 30 mins to release the colour…They create the most wonderfully rich sage greens..!
I was really fascinated to try working with Dragon’s Blood as a dye…This is a materials that’s come up for me recently in my work with Intuitive Herbalism - as an incense. I find the history and stories around Dragon’s Blood quite beguiling.. In fact, I’m going to do a specific post about it next after this one..
There are many types of “Dragon’s Blood” and not necessarily of the same plant family, but sharing a name… This particualr kind is Croton Calcareus or “Sangre de Drago”, which grows in dry forests in Oaxaca and Chiapas states.
The colour was pretty incredible in the dye pot - bright rich vivid blood red…! The finished, washed and dry fabrics show a muted dusty tawny pink.. I find this colour from a lot of woody dyes… It’s super common - Which fascinates me, because it is so similar to my natural skin colour.. Actually I see a range of skin colours in the samples below.. some more yellow, pink or brown…Something about this makes me feel a sense of unity with people and trees :)
And with regards to herbalism - Dragon’s Blood has traditionally been used topically to increase the healing of wounds… More on this magikal skin healing plant to come..
Palo De Brazil is so common here its used as fire wood. We know it as Brazilwood in the UK and generally avoid importing it as its not easy to source from sustainable suppliers. It’s a local heritage dye plant here in Oaxaca and commonly used by artisans in Teotitlan de Valle, the Zapotec village outside of the city, famous for its traditional natural dye weaving.
The wood has a distinct orange glow to it which sets it apart from other local dye and incense woods. The dye colours are strong, rich and vibrant, giving deep plummy reds on cotton mordanted with alum and wood ash.
We modified the dye with lime juice to shift it into these more organey and yellow tones.. The pale pink samples below are cotton with no mordant. Its a lovely raspberry pink and should be somewhat fast due to the natural tannins in the wood, without the addition of alum.
The dusty red earth ground is such a beautiful colour in this mangrove lined coast, and I’m led to believe it may get its blush hue from a high iron content - interestimg potential mordant/modifier??
I’ve definitely got a dusty look to a lot of my clothing and bags since hanging out here and I wonder if this pink soil could be intentionally used to dye textiles? Why not?
Initial experiements soaking the soil in water overnight and boiling for several hours over flame produced fairly un-interesting results…I sense that the colour may be more interesting if we rub dry earth into the wet/pre-mordanted textiles…
On the iron-content point - there was no clear indication of a high iron content from the soil when interacting with other dyes..but I’m keen to explore pink soil samples further in this area of thought..
Now this fruit I have been particularly excited to work with. I understand that the Zapotec weavers use it to dye skeins to dark browns and grey and thats not something I ever came across from a fruit before - only nut husks (walnut, oak gall, chestnut..)
How lucky am I that its Zapote Negro season and I get to meet and know this beautiful fruit..
Zapote Negro is a fruit, somewhat similar in texture to an avocado, with several medium size seeds in the middle. It’s generally left to ripen to the point where its skin slips off under the thumb while gently teasing it..for it to be ready to eat. And its often mixed with cacao and honey or banana to make a custard-like pudding (which is deliscious!)
For dyeing, I’ve seen people chop it up when its young and still has white flesh, and boiled for several hours.. And its also used in a fermentation vat , with iron added at the point of dyeing..
We tried this time with ripe fruits and the 101 dye recipe (see my book for more info) I often try with new experiments: 30-60 mins extraction, sit overnight and then 30-60 mins dyeing. I found that the results on cotton were not that exciting so I’m keen to try the fermentation vat on wool next..
Cochineal is an undeniably strong and brilliant dye and gave us reliably good strong pinks on the cotton that had been pre-mordanted with alum, and also cotton not pre-mordanted at all but dyed in an aluminium pot with a seasalt assist.
The rosemary was used semi-dry; whole leafy fronds chopped up and soaked overnight, boiled for 60 mins and dyed for 60 mins. The greens are strong and more impressive than I’ve seen in my english varieties..I actually LOVE this Rosemary green colour!
The picture below show three unmordanted sample on the left, and mordanted with alum and wood ash on the right. With acidic lime juice modifiers on their left and wood ash alkaline modified colours to the right sides.
Left to right: No mordant: lime juice/no modifier/wood ash, alum mordant: lime juice/no modifier/wood ash
Avocado never fails to impress and delight with its surprisingly vivid blush pinks, and again, I have to say these pinks really pop more than those I’m used to seeing back home. I suspect the hard water in Bristol is very different to the softer water here mkaing my hair softer, and also these tropical fruits just pack more of a punch than British varieties.. All that extra sunlight comes through in the colours..!
What do think of my coastal dye experiements so far? Would you like me to share more about any particular dyes in here, or perhaps others I’ve not yet mentioned?
Let me know and I’ll write more on this in my next post!
With much warmth, Babs :) xx