My wonderful palette of natural yellow dye
I am dyeing batches of fibres and fabrics with natural yellow dye. Some of these will remain yellow but most will be turned green. Many many plants give yellow dyes. It is probably the most common natural dye colour. The chemicals involved in the dyeing process vary and are quite complicated. One group of chemicals are known as flavonoids, which are split into the flavones and the flavonols. There are also the isoflavones, the chalcones and the Aurones groups. If this isn't complicated enough there are also carotenoids which give yellow to orange colourants and not surprisingly are found in carrots. Natural yellow dye from alder cones I love collecting Alder cones, filling my pockets with them whilst out on a walk, especially at this time of the year. Once they have been collected they can be stored and used anytime. Extraction of the dye is easy. The cones are high in…