Our Favourite Tannins — The Dyer's Secret
TANNINS
Like mordants, tannins are often underestimated or even overlooked. In combination with natural dyes they give incredible colours – and several are amazing on their own. Tannins are key to the mordant process for plant fibres – giving strong fast colours. Tannins are so wonderful we wanted to introduce you to our favourites.
For a thorough introduction to natural dyes including procedures, tannins, mordants, and recipes, see our "Maiwa Guide to Natural Dyes" at naturaldyes.ca.
Tannins can be clear or they can add colour to the fibre, and this is an important consideration when selecting a tannin. Experiment with different tannins and find the one that works best for the colours you like.
Clear Tannins
“Gallic”– Gallnut, Tara, some Sumacs
Yellow Tannins
“Ellagic”– Myrobalan, Pomegranate, Black Oak, Fustic
Red-Brown Tannins
“Catechic”– Cutch, Mimosa, Quebracho, Tea leaves, and some Sumacs.
SOME TANNINS AT WORK
TANNIN, IRON, & SCARF KIT
A kit to make grey naturally. Myrobolan is a tannin rich dye that reacts with ferrous sulfate to create a neutral grey. You can get different shades of grey by using anywhere between 0.5% WOF to 4% WOF ferrous sulfate.
This kit lets you dive into the world of grey. Myrobolan, pomegranate & gallnut are all rich in tannin that reacts with ferrous sulfate to create a variety of different greys. In the photo you can see (from left to right) that gallnut gives a purplish-grey, myrobolan gives a neutral stone-grey and pomegranate gives a greenish-grey. You can get different depths of grey by using anywhere between 0.5% WOF to 4% WOF ferrous sulfate.
This journal has been an idea of ours for a long time. It is a little like a combination of a travel journal and a natural dye journal. It is the journal we have always wanted.
To our U.S. customers – don't forget that the exchange rate works in your favour, it's like an extra discount.
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