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The latest blog post prepares for my artist residency in western North Carolina's Blue Ridge Mountains and my search there for new (to me) dye plants. The blog appears on 80dyes.com so hop on over click https://80dyes.com/f/carolina-on-my-mind
Natural Yellow Dye Sources and Experiments
Mullein - July 2025
Simmer, Don't Boil - July 2025
Also Known as Mule's Ears
Mullein grows wild in the zone between grasslands and woodlands, reaching heights of 5 feet or more but usually around 3 feet tall. At 100% WOF or higher and a slightly alkaline dye bath, it creates buttery yellows.
Also Known as Mule's Ears
Simmer, Don't Boil - July 2025
Also Known as Mule's Ears
Mullein is boldly invasive and thirsty, crowding out native plants and a scourge for land managers. Its fuzzy, floppy leaves, which give it the nickname Mule's Ears, can be used in a dye pot, or mix with the flowers and stem.
Simmer, Don't Boil - July 2025
Simmer, Don't Boil - July 2025
Simmer, Don't Boil - July 2025
The leaves are tough and not as delicate as dye flowers, but keep the pot to a low simmer, not a boil, to slowly extract the color. Adding a pinch of iron turns the dye khaki green; more iron can get close to a black color on protein fabrics
Stiff Greenthread - July 2025
A Coreopsis Relative - July 2025
A Coreopsis Relative - July 2025
Such a surprise. This flowering plant/weed grows wild in arid environments and loves disturbed, rocky soil. The oranges came from a big pot at pH8. The yellows are from the exhaust dye with lemon juice added to bring the pH down to 6. Cotton fabrics with various mordants and tannins.
A Coreopsis Relative - July 2025
A Coreopsis Relative - July 2025
A Coreopsis Relative - July 2025
When I saw an empty lot filled with these flowers, I pulled over to harvest a bagfull, which didn't deprive the pollinators as the field is still full of them.
WOF and pH - July 2025
A Coreopsis Relative - July 2025
WOF and pH - July 2025
I used the flowers at 100% Weight of Fabric, heated, cooled and then heated again. Our tap water is a little on the alkaline side, creating beautiful orange hues, especially on cotton that had been pre-treated with tannin and alum triformate.
Yarrow - July 2025
A Big Tough Plant - July 2025
WOF and pH - July 2025
A lot of yarrow is needed -- buckets full -- to get much depth of color, but soft or buttery yellows can still be created by a few of the flower heads. Adding a dark tannin like quebracho creates a brown while a dip in iron water takes the dye to gray.
A Big Tough Plant - July 2025
A Big Tough Plant - July 2025
A Big Tough Plant - July 2025
Yellow yarrow is used as a landscape plant and can reach heights of more than 4 feet. It spreads wide on thick stems. Yarris related to carrot, hemlock and Queen Anne's lace.
Fresh or Dried - July 2025
A Big Tough Plant - July 2025
A Big Tough Plant - July 2025
Yarrow can be used fresh, frozen or dried. A high pH - even up to 9 or 10 can help draw out the color. Some people don't like the plant's scent, but I think it's a lovely mix of something like eucalyptus, pine and walking into a floral shop.
Queen Anne's Lace - July 2025
Queen Anne's Lace - July 2025
Queen Anne's Lace - July 2025
Queen Anne's Lace is a relative of carrot. With just a half dozen blossoms, I got this lovely soft yellow. It would be brighter with a higher WOF.
White to Yellow - July 2025
Queen Anne's Lace - July 2025
Queen Anne's Lace - July 2025
The white blossoms, when heated, create a yellow dye. A higher pH leads to a brighter color, but a lot of flowers are needed to get deeper shades.
Forage with Care - July 2025
Queen Anne's Lace - July 2025
Forage with Care - July 2025
Upon inspection, I was sure it was Queen Anne's Lace and not poison hemlock. Such foraging does require paying attention. Different stems, different flowers, different roots and very different outcomes if ingested.
Mystery Flowers - July 2025
Mystery Flowers - July 2025
Forage with Care - July 2025
I was gifted a frozen bag of yellow/orange flowers that neither of us could identify. Did they have dye potential? One way to find out. After a half hour in a just-below-simmer dye pot, I’d say, yes, they certainly have dye potential. Later identified as field coreopsis.
The Tannin Test - July 2025
Mystery Flowers - July 2025
The Tannin Test - July 2025
Cotton muslin from a pot of the mystery flowers. The two fabrics on the left were treated only with alum acetate. The four orange ones on the right also were treated with tannins. From left, the tannins are quebracho, tara, sumac and cherry pits. I really can't tell a difference in the color among them. The cherry pit tannin piece may be just a little lighter.
Mystery Solved - July 2025
Mystery Flowers - July 2025
The Tannin Test - July 2025
Smashed, frozen flowers are hard to identify, but after some detective work we figured out they mystery flowers were field coreopsis, which grow in abundance around Colorado's plains and along roadways.
Playing with Fire - June 2025
Playing with Fire - June 2025
Playing with Fire - June 2025
Dyed fabric swatches were put on a foil-covered grill and 'cooked' at 300 degrees F for 3 minutes.
Heat and Dye - June 2025
Playing with Fire - June 2025
Playing with Fire - June 2025
The color of most of the grilled fabrics became deeper and darker.
Flames and Fabric - June 2025
Playing with Fire - June 2025
Flames and Fabric - June 2025
The direct flame obviously burned the fabric, but the radiating heat created a halo effect on the surrounding fabric.
Cooking Color - June 2025
Fresh Dyers Chamomile - May 2025
Flames and Fabric - June 2025
Some of the color changes from the heat were dramatic, others subtle.
Dyers Chamomile - April 2025
Fresh Dyers Chamomile - May 2025
Fresh Dyers Chamomile - May 2025
Dryers Chamomile rivals Weld for a durable bright yellow regardless of the mordant used. Shown: All cotton fabrics.
Fresh Dyers Chamomile - May 2025
Fresh Dyers Chamomile - May 2025
Fresh Dyers Chamomile - May 2025
Fresh Dyers Chamomile flowers are a beautiful garden addition and create bright yellow fabric dyes and paints.
Dried Dyers Chamomile - May 2025
Dried Dyers Chamomile - May 2025
Dried Dyers Chamomile - May 2025
Fresh or dried flowers produce equally vivid results.
Dried Bay Leaves - Mar. 2025
Dried Dyers Chamomile - May 2025
Dried Dyers Chamomile - May 2025
I got surprisingly vibrant colors from one ounce of dried bay leaves. I use them in soups, stews and sauces but didn't until recently think to dye with them. A bonus: the lovely bay laurel scent from the simmering
Surprising Color - Mar. 2025
Dried Dyers Chamomile - May 2025
Surprising Color - Mar. 2025
The secret is heat and time. A lot of both. Soaked the leaves for an hour or so in pH8 water, simmered for an hour, cooled in the pot for a couple hours, simmered again for a hour and cooled again. Strained, heated yet again to a low simmer and added the fabric. On heat for an hour then left in the pot for almost two days. Different shades of yellow from different mordants.
Turmeric - Feb. 2025
Turmeric - Feb. 2025
Surprising Color - Mar. 2025
This ground spice produces a bright yellow on any natural fabric regardless of fiber content or the type of mordant used. It is reported to have limited color-fastness, but I have turmeric-dyed fabrics from almost a decade ago that remain vividly colored.
Bright Yellow
Turmeric - Feb. 2025
An Ancient Spice
Cotton, linen, silk, hemp all end up vibrantly yellow after some time in a turmeric pot. The ground dye sticks to everthing, so I steep it in the dye pot using a thin cotton bag that is removed before adding the fabric. The dye bag can be re-used a couple times and still produce a bright yellow.
An Ancient Spice
Turmeric - Feb. 2025
An Ancient Spice
Whole turmeric looks much like ginger root and the two often are sold together in markets around North Africa, Asia, the Middle East and across the Himalaya. It adds the signature flavor to many iconic dishes and has been used for centuries to dye fabric for Buddhist monks' robes.
Aster Family Flowers - Jan. 2025
Aster Family Flowers - Jan. 2025
Aster Family Flowers - Jan. 2025
New seed catalogs have me thinking of new plants and thus clearing out those dried last summer. This dye pot surprised me. I loaded it up with dried mixed flowers in the aster family: rudbeckia, coneflowers, small sunflowers, blanket flower. I've never been able to get more than a barely there yellow or sickly thin green from any of them, but maybe the combination lifted them all.
Everyone Into the Pot
Aster Family Flowers - Jan. 2025
Aster Family Flowers - Jan. 2025
These flowers , dried from the past summer's crop, went into the dye bath. Clockwise from top left: Prairie Sunflower, Yellow Coneflower (also known as Echineca), Blanket Flower and Black-Eyed Susan (also known as Rudbeckia).
Tan to Yellow to Gold
Aster Family Flowers - Jan. 2025
Overdyeing - Jan. 2025
Hemp fabrics and some cottons mordanted with aluminum acetate picked up a lot of gold color while others, including cottons using a soy binder, turned a softer, lighter yellow or tan. All were dyed in the same bath at 160 degrees F and with a pH 8.
Overdyeing - Jan. 2025
Embracing the Dark Side
Overdyeing - Jan. 2025
Many yellow dye sources such as barks are loaded in tannin, giving them a secondary use in the mordanting process. For flower-based dyes, another use is as a base for overdyeing to create new colors or brighten others. In this photo, the vivid yellow from weld is in the center. On the left, it had been dipped in a madder exhaust to create an apricot-orange. On the right, it's overdyed with concentrated cochineal to brighten up a pink.
Getting Green
Embracing the Dark Side
Embracing the Dark Side
A classic weld overdye combination is to dip the yellow fabric in indigo to create a range of greens. The intensity and fastness of the bright yellow from weld holds up to the deep blue indigo to create a greens that vary depending on the number of indigo dips.
Embracing the Dark Side
Embracing the Dark Side
Embracing the Dark Side
Changing the dye pot pH or adding iron can create grays, browns and khaki-green colors from yellow plant dyes. The two soft gray-green tones came from adding just a bit of rusty water to a weld dye bath. The dark gray is from adding iron oxide. The brown is what happens when both the pH and temperature of the dye bath are increased. All fabrics in these images are cotton.
Onion Skin - Jan. 2025
Dyeing with onion skins, the papery outer layer of yellow or red onions, is a great way to use kitchen waste for a better purpose than right in the trash. Collect them in a bag as you cook and either freeze or dry them until ready to dye.
A Little Goes a Long Way
Just a handful of onion skins can produce a range of yellows and golds. Scrunched up in bundle dyeing they create a brightly colored camo-type print. Cut into small heart or star shapes and steamed onto fabric makes for fun prints.
Golds Galore
Weld - Jan. 2025
To simmer or not to simmer? Scrunch up the fabric or stir frequently? Increase the pH? Lower it? Dozens of ways exist to manipulate the onion skin color from a soft light peachy yellow to deep rich gold.
Weld - Jan. 2025
A Long Dye History
Weld - Jan. 2025
I'm starting 2025 by moving on to weld, the queen of yellow natural dyes. Colors on the right of image = various fabrics (cottons, hemp, silks) and different mordants with and without tannins. WOF at 100% of dried flowers, leaves and stems. Far left in image = results from an overnight soak in the exhaust bath. Yellow is a given with weld, so the next move is to see how I can manipulate it into other colors.
A Long Dye History
A Long Dye History
A Long Dye History
Weld grows in temperate climates around the globe and has been used as a dye since pre-history. It produces light-fast vibrant colors that also play well with others, especially indigo to create greens.
Rabbitbrush - Dec. 2024
Rabbitbrush - Dec. 2024
Rabbitbrush - Dec. 2024
Rabbitbrush, a large relative of goldenrod, produces colors ranging from bright yellow to softer yellows, gold, light orange and a khaki green as the color is shifted with pH or WOF changes and after-baths.
Harvest Time Matters
Rabbitbrush - Dec. 2024
Rabbitbrush - Dec. 2024
The depth of color produced by rabbitbrush can be very bright when harvested at its peak or light yellow later in the season as the flowering parts fade. I foraged it along roadsides at both times, used it fresh but also dried a lot and used it later to achieve different shades of yellow.
Enhancing Prints
Rabbitbrush - Dec. 2024
I had several leaf-printing failures where the prints were barely visible, so I tried using an overdye of rabbitbrush. It brought out the depth of the prints in a pretty nice way. The tannin in the oak leaves kept the fabric brown instead of rabbitbrush yellow.
Moving on to Marigold - Oct. 2024
Moving on to Marigold - Oct. 2024
Marigold comes in dozens of varieties and grows just about everywhere. In our semi-arid Colorado climate, the dead flowers dry out instead of rotting and can still create dye color well into winter. I found no difference in the color from the small flowers or large African marigold blooms other than the amount of blossoms needed.
Fresh, Dried, Frozen
Moving on to Marigold - Oct. 2024
Fresh, Dried, Frozen
There are many ways to use the marigold flower as a dye source: fresh, frozen, dried, with the sepal (green part connecting the flower to the stem) or without it and just using the petals. The seeds of dried blossoms will add a brown to botanical printing but seem to have no effect on dye color.
Go For Gold
Moving on to Marigold - Oct. 2024
Fresh, Dried, Frozen
Marigold is a reliable yellow-producer but also easy to push toward gold and brown with changes in pH or heat. Boiling any flower will change the color toward brown. To retain a brighter color, keep the heat just below a simmer, around 160 degrees Fahrenheit.
Coreopsis - Oct. 2024
Finally - a Solid Coreopsis Yellow
Finally - a Solid Coreopsis Yellow
I spent a month trying to move coreopsis away from orange and into yellow. So many factors affect the natural dye processes that much of it becomes trial and error using a variety of fabric and mordants.
Finally - a Solid Coreopsis Yellow
Finally - a Solid Coreopsis Yellow
Finally - a Solid Coreopsis Yellow
I saved and dried flowers from a previous pot and reused them at 50% WOF (weight of fabric) in 3 quarts of tap water with a pH of 7. Soaked for 2 hours, heated for a half hour without straining. A little vinegar brought the pH down to 5. Cotton and silk fabric were left to cool and soak in the pot overnight.
Low pH
Finally - a Solid Coreopsis Yellow
Coreopsis - Sept. 2024
The cotton and silk came out of the pot a vibrant medium yellow and dried only slightly lighter. A few tiny orange spots showed up from some direct contact with the flower petals still in the dye bath. The sweet spot for coreopsis yellow seems to be a low pH and low WOF.
Coreopsis - Sept. 2024
Coreopsis - Sept. 2024
Coreopsis - Sept. 2024
Coreopsis basalis is one of several varieties of the flower that produces fabric and fiber dyes ranging from bright orange to deep yellow. It was my starter flower for The Yellow Project because of its dependable dye production. It also is a standard for printing or pounding on fabric.
Manipulating Color
Coreopsis - Sept. 2024
Manipulating Color
Coreopsis flowers can create a variety of colors. This image, from left, shows orange hues from the addition of soda ash to increase the dye bath pH, and yellows made by the addition of citric acid or vinegar to lower the pH.
Taking Notes
Coreopsis - Sept. 2024
Manipulating Color
Careful measurements and detailed note-taking are crucial in natural dye color manipulation. A difference in the weight of fabric vs. weight of dye source, the water pH, heat levels and additives all influence the resulting color. These pages showed how coreopsis will produce color even after using the pot four times.
Yellow-Dyed Quilted Art
Spicy Yellow from Turmeric
Spicy Yellow from Turmeric
Spicy Yellow from Turmeric
Another Yellow Project quilt. Various fabrics (cotton, hemp, linen, silk) dyed with turmeric. No color shifting, just yellows. Small dye pot = small quilt.
Hand Quilted Bubbles
Spicy Yellow from Turmeric
Spicy Yellow from Turmeric
The hand-quilted circles reminded me of a pot of turmeric-laced curry bubbling on the stove, so I added some flat green beads that resemble lentils just to amuse myself.
Shifty Shades of Yellow
Spicy Yellow from Turmeric
Shifty Shades of Yellow
All colors in this quilt came from four yellow dye sources from Argentina: Fustic bark, quebracho bark, pomegranate rinds, onion skin. The colors were shifted using ph, heat and mordant manipulation as well as the addition of iron. Cotton, silk blend, hemp and linen fabrics. Hand quilted.
From Yellow to Pink
Mixed Aster Family Flowers
Shifty Shades of Yellow
The use of soda ash to increase the dye pot pH can more quebracho yfrom a brownish yellow to pinkde and mauve. Onion skins and pomegranate rinds easily shift to golds, orange and khaki.
Mixed Aster Family Flowers
Mixed Aster Family Flowers
Mixed Aster Family Flowers
This was fun and easy: I found the embroidered bouquet of rudbeckia (black-eyed Susan) at a thrift shop and decided to surround it with simple-shaped fabrics (cotton, linen and a hemp-silk blend). All fabrics were dyed with a mix of dried aster family flowers left from the past summer (rudbeckia, prairie sunflower, coneflower, blanket flower.
Simple Hand Quilting
Mixed Aster Family Flowers
Mixed Aster Family Flowers
The hand quilting with yellow-dyed cotton thread kept to simple shapes - crosshatch, parallel lines and a cable look in the outer border.
The Weld Quilt
The Coreopsis Quilt
The Coreopsis Quilt
All of these colors were produced by using weld, an ancient dye source found across temperate climates and in use as far back as the Iron Age. Weld is one of the most light-fast and durable yellow dyes. A quick swim in madder produces oranges, pinks and browns on weld. With Indigo, weld makes a solid true green. This quilt is made from cottons, linen and hemp blends. Hand quilted as always.
The Coreopsis Quilt
The Coreopsis Quilt
The Coreopsis Quilt
I'm pretty sure 1,000 yellow flowers died to dye this quilt. All of the colors and prints are from my experiments with coreopsis. Cottons, linen, raw and processed silk fabrics. Solid blocks are mixed with 'crumb quilt' blocks in a variety of coreopsis dyes and prints. Machine pieced and hand quilted. One of the beauties of natural dyes is that the colors are all of the same soft tone so that a green can go next to a red or an orange next to a pink.
The Marigold Quilt
The Rabbitbrush Quilt
The Rabbitbrush Quilt
I'm calling this one 'Walking on Sunshine' after the song by Katrina and the Waves (1983). Cottons, linen, silk and socks dyed and printed in the colors of marigold. Hand quilted. Marigold are easy flowers to push from yellow to gold with a little increase in the pH from soda ash or chalk. Printing with marigold can be tricky as the cluster of seeds leaves brown marks on the fabric. Dried flowers are likely to print with more brown than fresh ones. Steaming or simmering for longer times also can lead to brown dominating the print.
The Rabbitbrush Quilt
The Rabbitbrush Quilt
The Rabbitbrush Quilt
Rabbitbrush produces a bright yellow early in autumn and lighter colors as the flowering parts start to fade. This quilt is made of cottons and silks. Hand Quilted. Wood, if unvarnished or untreated, can be dyed as well as fabric. Buttons were added to the rabbitbrush pots and then sewn onto to the quilt. Heating oak leaves and rusty iron bits in the rabbitbrush pot produced this blue-gray, which was unexpected. I thought it might push the yellow toward a greenish gray. Sometimes with natural dyes, you just never know.
Follow The Yellow Project and Stay in Touch
Part of a Bigger Story
The Yellow Project is part of my larger Around the World in 80 Dyes project that experiments with colors and textiles in countries ranging from, so far, Denmark to Morocco to Nepal.
Check the bigger picture at https://80dyes.com. From there, sign up for the 80dyes blog that includes updates to The Yellow Project and details about my travels.
For quick hits and immediate updates, follow me on Instagram @80dyes.
Have ideas, suggestions or questions? Send an email to JDay@80dyes.com.
Travels With The Yellow Project
Where to Next?
2025
August 11-17 Artist in Residence at Wildacres Retreat in Little Switzerland, North Carolina, to study the effects of a wet environment and humid forest climate on dye intensity and color from yellow-producing flowers, with comparisons to dye from the same types of flowers grown at home in a semi-arid environment.
October 4 Farm to Fashion Fair by Mountain and Plains Fibershed, Golden, Colorado, showcasing fiber products handmade around Colorado. 15220 West Sixth Ave., Suite A, Golden, Colorado.
November 14-28 Projecto Ace artist residendcy in Buenos Aires, Argentina, to continue The Yellow Project work. During the residency I will explore native yellow dye plants of Argentina, including Fustic and Quebracho barks, and Oxalis flowers. I will also be working with the yellow dyes from two important export crops for the country: Pomegranate and Onion. Expect plenty of website, Instagram and blog updates during and after the trip.
2026
September 19-October 3 Essere Artist residency in Tuscany, Italy, to continue The Yellow Project work, develop new projects and promote the art of natural dyes.
Check back for more information and details about travels, arts fairs, fiber festivals, gallery shows and other events for the rest of 2025 and into next year.